Perhaps one of the greatest contributions to the fame of The Black Forest is the cuckoo clock. While it is easy to appreciate their charismatic beauty and charm, few realize how deeply rooted these clocks are in history. It has been a long journey that has involved several hundred years and thousands of people in small towns located in one valley in The Black Forest. The first description of a cuckoo clock was in 1629 and was written by a German nobleman, Philipp Hainhofer. He describes a curious little clock that belonged to Prince Elector August von Sachsen. It contained a bird that resembled a cuckoo. Thus giving the name to the “cuckoo clock”. However, these early clocks were very primitive by today’s standard and did not make any sound! Enter Franz Anton Ketterer! Ketterer was a clock maker from The Black Forest and is credited with the invention of the cuckoo clock you know today. It was one day in the 1730s, after pondering the mechanism of a church organ bellow, he was inspired …