Black Forest Germany

The Black Forest where all the beautiful cuckoo clocks come from is a German mountain range in the south west of Germany. It is situated on the boarder triangle between Germany, France and Switzerland. The Black Forest extends along the river Rhine on a length of about 100 miles and a width of 25-40 miles. The highest mountain is the Feldberg at 4900 ft. above sea level.

Already the Romans knew about the Black Forest, but never settled significantly. They built a road through the Black Forest, because it was border area that needed regular military activities. Major settlements were started by the Alemanni.

The Black Forest (in German language "Schwarzwald") is one of the most popular tourist areas in Germany and has much more to offer besides cuckoo clocks. Many famous lakes (Titsee, Schluchsee, Feldsee) and other interesting sites draw millions of tourist from around the world every year. The southern part of the Black Forest is the warmest Region in Europe between the Alps and the North Sea. The climate is also ideal for wine growing. In summer the Black Forest is a paradise for hiking, Nordic walking and biking and in winter the region offers alpine skiing and cross country skiing.

The Black Forest (located near the german city of Freiburg - www.freiburg.de) is a very traditional German region and is not densely populated with only a few larger cities. Besides the Black Forest Clock and the famous Cuckoo Clocks there are other products from the Black Forest that have made it to world wide reputation. The Black Forest Gateau, Black Forest Ham and the Kirsch Schnaps are probably the most famous ones.

A very interesting site is the "German Clock Road" (www.deutscheuhrenstrasse.de) that goes through many lovely cities of the Black Forest. Along the road you can visit clock museums and clock companies that deliver a good insight into the Black Forest Clock production and tradition. The clock industry is an important industrial branch in the region. It has been for several hundred years and hopefully will be in the future. It looks like the workshops do not suffer from globalisation and plagiarism from Asia. Mainly because customers of cuckoo clock have faith in the original quality and are not