After 1860 the Bahnhäusle Kuckuck formalized its design attributes. Two types can be distinguished; a third type featuring fretted ornaments did not succeed in the market. All types have a wooden front, which is animated by white numerals and white hands made of bone. But they differ in their ornamentation. One model is decorated with carved vine leaves and gothic ornaments, while the other is decorated with oak leaves, fern or edelwiess, cuckoos, eagles, foxes, or alpine goats.

Clocks especially designed for hunting lodges had realistic carvings in abundance. On top, these had deer heads with antlers; alongside the dial were trophies, very often a combination of hares and pheasants, and in the lower parts were bugles and rifles, all amidst a floral arrangement of tropical origins. Sometimes it is difficult to see the outline of the Häusle.

From the beginning, the Bahnhäusle Kuckuck was opposed by art experts and those who felt it was in bad taste. But obviously, emotions followed their own rules. All attempts have failed to place the cuckoo in cases of Gothic or Renaissance design. Junghans, the world’s largest clock factory at the time, tried to promote an Art Nouveaux cuckoo, but it was a failure. Another new design in the 1920s failed as well. By 1930, a Furtwangen producer was offering his customers 70 different models; 65 of them were in the Bahnhäusle style.

Cuckoo clock factories enjoyed their last boom period in the years following 1950, when exports from Germany to America were bolstered by a high rate of exchange on the dollar. Cuckoo clocks were promotional gifts, and nearly every homecoming GI had one as a souvenir in his baggage. Approximately 30 million cuckoo clocks have been produced since 1850, about 200,000 of them in the last year. Many follow the classic pattern; others look like Swiss chalets.

Eisenlohr built about 250 lodges for railwaymen along the tracks, each one in sight of the other. In rare publications we can see what they looked like, but it is far easier to visit souvenir shops in Heidelberg or Munich for a wide assortment of Bahnhäusle clocks. Or visit Triberg or Titisee in the Black Forest, of course.

Mark Twain was not enchanted by cuckoo clocks on a visit to Switzerland in about 1875. He may have chosen a subtle retaliation in telling his readers that the clocks were Swiss made. But the Black Forest cuckoo clock has proven, over time, its ability to withstand criticism and to survive.

References

Eisenlohr, Friedrich. Ornamentik in ihrer Anwendung (Applied ornamentation). Karlsruhe, 1849/1857. Illustration Nr. 117.

Kahlert, Helmut. Schwarzwälder Kuckucksuhren. Weltkunst, 1992: 24 and (1993) 3.

Kochmann, Karl. Black Forest Clockmaker and the Cuckoo Clock. Concord, CA, 1987.

Mühe, Richard, et. al. Kuckucks uhren. Munich: Callwey, 1988.

Schneider, Wilhelm. Zur Entstehungsgeschichte (History of Origin) der Kuckucksuhr in: Alte Uhren (1985) 3, pp. 13-21.

Schneider, Wilhelm and Monika Schneider. “Black Forest Cuckoo Clocks at the Exhibitions in Philadelphia 1876 and Chicago 1893.” NAWCC Bulletin, No. 253 (April 1988): pp. 116-132.

About the Author

Dr. Helmut Kahlert was a professor at Furtwangen College and retired in 1992. He continues as an advisor to the Deutsches Uhrenmuseum Furtwangen, and has published several horological books.