Friedrich Eisenlohr (1805–1854), professor of architecture at Karlsruhe Polytechnic, designed a case for Black Forest clocks in 1850-51 based on the gatekeeper lodges he had designed and built for the Badenian Rhine Valley Railroad. It proved to be an extremely successful design. Bahnhäusle clocks can still be found in many clock and souvenir shops all over the world. Their story is worth telling. (continue reading in this column below Figure 1) 
| Figure 1. Just right in time. Dr. Jüttemann, a well known German expert, has “discovered” an original design by Eisenlohr. There is no doubt left now: we owe Eisenlohr the Bahnhäusle case and a new cuckoo clock as well. The little door in the gable is convincing proof. First published in Jütteman, Herbert-Die Schwarzwalduhr, fourth edition, Karlsruhe 2000, p. 242. |
In many parts of Europe there were crop failures in 1845 and 1846. Ireland suffered most, but the Black Forest region was stricken as well. A large percentage of income must be spent for food when incomes are small. When prices rose due to shortages, there was no income available to buy a clock, even at extremely modest prices. Under these circumstances Black Forest clockmakers unionized. Within a few months their trade union (Gewerbsverein) had more than 700 members in 35 villages. The economic crisis trumped local rivalries. Many problems were discussed in their meetings without reaching a consensus, but in one respect all agreed: they needed advice from experts and better training to improve productivity, which had not improved in decades. Also, the well known Black Forest clock, with its painted wooden Uhrenschild, had lost customers. While within the villages this type was still requested, people in the European towns wanted clock cases to complement their decors. In their petitions of 1847, the clockmakers wanted price-control boards and warehouses for clocks, financed by public funds. These postulations had no chance of being realized. In this period liberalism was at the peak of its influence in Badenia. Deregulation was expected. But another proposal to start a school for clockmaking was supported by all of the political forces in the country. Two revolutions of 1848 and 1849 delayed the project. It took three years before the Furtwangen Clockmaker School was established in 1850. Training in workshops was combined with instruction in a Gewerbeschule (technical school). The new institution was well equipped with manpower and machinery. In 1851/52 the staff of the school consisted of 12 persons, including two instructors for practical clockmaking and two for watchmaking. Three teachers held lessons in the Gewerbeschule. There were no restrictions for visiting this institution, while workshops had a capacity of 18 students each. | 
| Figure 2. Bust of Friedrich Eisenlohr, professor of architecture at Karlsruhe Polytechnic and architect of the buildings along the Badenian Rhine Valley Railroad. |
Robert Gerwig, the school director from 1850 to 1857, believed that contemporary production was rather crude and old fashioned. In September of 1850, he appealed to German artists and connoisseurs to help Black Forest tradesmen, saying “each suggestion, each sketch...is welcome.” His call for new designs was answered. Some results can be seen at the Furtwangen Clock Museum. One design suggestion flourished: Professor Eisenlohr’s Bahnhäusle. When the Badenian Railway along the Rhine was built in the 1840s, Eisenlohr began planning all of the buildings, stations, and gatekeeper’s lodges from Mannheim to Bâle. Three types in different sizes were built: one for shelter during the day and for equipment, another for single men with sleeping quarters, and the largest Häusle for families. Though Eisenlohr’s architectural style was somewhat controversial, all agreed that his wooden Bahnhäusle harmonized with the country and its people and was aesthetically pleasing. While the school was happy to have Eisenlohr’s clock case sketches, they were not fully realized in their original form. Eisenlohr had proposed a wooden facade; Gerwig preferred a painted metal front combined with an enamel dial. At the Villingen exhibition in 1858 many clockmakers presented clocks in the new style. A star was born. The combination of a Häusle and a cuckoo made Eisenlohr’s design popular for the next 150 years. An exceptional bird had found its home. It is difficult to know what made the cuckoo so popular in former times. In Germany there are many songs about this bird, and a large dictionary on popular belief and superstition dedicates 30 pages to the cuckoo, while other prominent birds, the eagle for example, get less than 10. The cuckoo mechanism may not be a genuine Black Forest invention. The first clocks of this kind were built in the Black Forest between 1740 and 1750, not in 1730 as is so often cited in horological literature. So, loosely speaking, the cuckoo clock is 250 years old. But from 1850 on this clock often represented all Black Forest clockmaking. A French publication at the Paris exhibition of 1867 titled “Le coucous de la Forêt Noire” states that seven clocks were shown; only one of them was really a cuckoo clock. Next Page  |
