At Home in the Black Forest
[Music] good afternoon and welcome here to H danan in the heart of the Black Forest my name is Nadine and I’m allowed to be a host today I would like you to show you a little bit more about H Ganan for example the glass manufacturer building as well as glass making itself also the Sten house where we have beautiful cuckoo clocks and I also show you a little bit more about the black forest Huch stanan is a family run business it’s over 700 years old and we are very proud of it that’s because it’s one of the most Echo places we have here in the black forest [Music] we are here at the entrance of the Ravena Gorge behind me you can see the viaduct actually it’s a train bridge but we call it a Viaduct because of its special shape the train that is passing the viaduct is part of our public transportation system the original Viaduct got built here between 1884 and 1887 it was made out of wood steel and stones but it has quite a nice curve inside so it was very difficult for the trains to pass it it was also the time of the Industrial Revolution so the trains as well as the locomotives got faster it was difficult for them to pass this original Viaduct that’s why the Germans had to blew it up they destroyed it and they built a new one and this was in the beginning of the 20th century during World War II we had a little bit of fighting here in the black forest and most of the fighing was taking place here at huanan because the eyelight tried to get a hold on the viaduct that is behind me using the viaduct and the train is the fastest easiest and safest way to pass the black forest and that’s why the eyad were very interested in getting a hold on the viad that is behind me the Germans were able to defend it for quite a long time but at some time they needed to leave this area and so they blew up the wodu once again after world War II Germany was divided in four section we had the British American Russian and um French section and we are located here in the French section and that’s why the French army rebuilt the viaduct that we’re still using today it was at the end of the 1940s earlier the 2000s we modernized the viaduct a little bit and nowadays we are able to heat up the rails of the viaduct and this makes it safer and easier for the trains to pass the viaduct during the winter time I’m here on a little bridge that is part of the hike that we offer you at huanan it’s one of the options that you have here and this area got its name after the Little River that is to my right as well as to my left the river is called Ravena and it gives this Gorge its name it’s called Rena Gorge and it’s quite a nice hike for you that you can do by yourself or guided with one of our guides now I would like to explain you a bit more about the animals that we have here in the black first we have very cute animals for example squirrels lizards and bards we don’t have Eagles here in the Black Forest but we also have foxes wolves wild rabbits Red Deer stacks and other animals they are all very cute and we all like them very much we also have a lot of mushrooms in this area area one is a very special mushroom it has a red hat with white dots on it in German we call it fleing pits I’m actually from the north of Germany and in my area we have a special nickname for this mushroom we call it mother-in-law mushroom but I have no idea why it’s probably because um when you eat this mushroom you have once in your lifetime experience so that might be a reason why we call it mother-in-law mushroom up in the north of Germany so we actually reached the end of our little hike normally that’s the point where we turn around and start walking back with our guests but you also can always turn around by yourself and walk back as well this is a very nice point to take selfies here because normally you have the waterfall in your back like I have it at the moment as well so it’s quite nice here I also would like to take the opportunity to explore my hat in German we call it a Bolen hoot it would if you translate it it would be a pomon hat the Bolen hoot is an essential part of our folks costume or how we call it Black Forest TR anyone seeing the straw head with a soft red womb pom immediately thinks of the Black Forest so we can say it became kind of a trademark for this region and sometimes even for the whole country but did you know that this formal headress may be worn only by Protestant women in The Villages kbak gut and RB well these three villages are the home of the famous traditional pom hat which was created about 250 years ago the Hat used to have a weight more than 4 lb nowadays it’s less heavy because my head is made out of straw but in the older days 200 250 years ago the Legends tells you that the Head was made out of concrete and that’s why it used to be so heavy I have 11 pom poms on my hat but actually there are 14 pom pom but only 11 of them are visible the 14 pom pom on my hat they represent the 14 saints that protect our Black Forest Area the Hat may be worn For the First Time by girls after the confirmation so with the age of about 14 or 15 years we normally wore those hats if we attended a church a mass or festival or family meeting we have the hat with two different colors of pom poms the red pom poms tells you that I am unmarried well after I got married then I must follow my husband’s rules sorry that’s a little bit difficult to swallow to be honest with you so after you got married you must follow your husband’s rules and this tells you that after your married life is over and then you wear black pom poms of course so behind me you can see the hotel of huanan there’s also a picture of mar antonet she arrived here on her way from Vienna to Paris in the year 1717 she was on her way from Vienna to Paris to get married to Louis the 16th and we all know their marriage didn’t end in a very good way because both lost their hat at the beginning of the French Revolution of course but Mar antonet stayed here at huchon a couple of nights um because this way she was able to stay in her home country the property of H Ganan belonged to the Habsburg family to the Austrian Empire at this time and the landlords of huanan were allowed to collect the Texas for the Habsburg family so huanan was in its original purpose a horse trading place it was very famous and was very important for this region the people that traveled up and down the road that you came down the hill as well the road that we call hell well the horses were quite exhausted when they traveled up and down this road so they needed a break those people who were able to afford to stay in the hotel here they stayed in the hotel behind me if they couldn’t afford it well then they left the horses here borrowed a new pair of horses went on with their journey and as soon as they come back they turned in the borrowed horses and got their own ones back this was less expensive so this is the original purpose of a h ston now we’re here in front of the glass manufacturer building and I would like to introduce you to my friend Mila she’s going to explain you what’s going to happen inside and everything about the history of glass manufacturing so hello welcome to our glass manufacturer here at the Black Forest Village in a minute we’re going to go inside and I’m going to tell you a bit about the hot History of Glass making as well as the building that we have here and the Glass artists that work here [Music] so here we are inside the glass manufacturing and even though this building has only been around for about 10 years the history of glass making actually goes back thousands of years so it was a very important tradition and profession here in the Black Forest because here we have all the elements that we need in order to make glass so glass is basically made through melting down of specific mixtures this would be sand patach which is basically a an ash of a tree that’s soaked in water and different ox sides that are melted together and styled into shape so here you see Mel grinder at his work so Mel is is a glass blower which means he blows directly into the glass to make glass items so as you see he takes long glass rods and he holds them up to the direct flame in order to melt the glass that’s there he’ll then blow directly into it in order to make different items such as glass birds or tree ornaments or thin wine [Music] glasses so here we have our other glass artist Axel pouts so what Axel is is a glass maker this literally means that he makes his own glass so you’ll see here that we have three different ovens the first oven is a melting oven so in in the evening what Axel will do is he’ll take some glass pellets which is BAS which are basically bigger pieces of glass he’ll put them inside the oven and overnight they’re going to melt to make a sort of fluid liquidy mixture and in the morning when he comes in he takes the metal rods that he has over there he’ll go into the big oven and take out some glass and then work mainly at the heating oven in the middle so basically he’ll put the glass in the middle he’ll turn it take it out and he’ll blow into the metal rod that he’s holding right now in order to make bigger objects so you’ll see that he has a lot of glass in his hand at the moment which basically means he’s able to make the bigger and heavier glass items that we have here so after he’s finished he’ll put the finished piece into the cooling oven which is the last one that we see over there and it’s going to stay there overnight until the morning when he takes it out and the glass is cooled enough to touch and to be put on the shelf and now welcome to the workbench where we will be taking a little walk through the history of cuckoo clocks and then we talk about how these traditional Black Forest cuckoo clocks are made and here we have the first generation clock that came out of the Black Forest made in the 1640s by 2 farmers who lived right over here known as a wooden beam clock it was made entirely out of wood and used these three wooden clogs for working and had this stone for the weights but when you take a very close look at the clock you’re going to see something was missing that’s right the second hand so this clock had only one hand it was very easy to tell the full hours like 4:00 5:00 but what was happening in between was anybody’s guess but it was the 1640s and two farmers builded it we give credit for it’s due and now let us glide into the 1700s we come to the 1720s which introduce the first cuckoo clock ever and these were known as Shield clocks but they had a few developments and advancements the stone weights from the first clock was replaced by these metallic weights and the one hand got its friends so now it has two hands and it became way easier to tell the accurate time now let us take a look at the cuckoo bird so every half hour he makes an appearance only once and every full hour so 9:00 9 times 10:00 10 times the idea behind it was you are busy you’re unable to look at your clock you hear the Chimes and you know what time it is and by the end of the century cucko Clocks Were a household name and so artian they started experimenting and creating new figurines and we have one of the very popular and interesting ones here known as The Dumpling eater let’s find out why it was called so so half hour he’s sitting on his throne very casually and enjoying and gorging on his dumplings and when the clock strikes full hour there he is eating more and more here we have another fun experimental clock take a good look you’re going to be seeing a tailor sitting inside and he has a woman behind him holding in her hands something similar to this one let’s see what happens when the clock strikes the full hour he’s getting hit on the head you know why because he hasn’t been working hard enough so and we call this clock the Mother-in-law clock and here we we have the third generation of cucko clocks that came around roughly the 1800s and interestingly enough the 1860s saw a competition a cck clock competition among the locals and this right over here was the winner and it was created by a railway engineer our beloved engineer he paid homage to his profession when we take a very close look at the clock we see the designs were quite intricate and represented the railway tracks and these clocks were mostly found by the railway stations in Germany back in the time and interestingly enough he went back from the figurines to the cucko bird let’s have a [Music] [Applause] look now days we have more intricate and detailed works adorning the clocks but the biggest highlight are the three weights why three you’re wondering right let’s have a look and find out [Music] [Applause] [Music] and after our walk through the history of K clocks let us dive into the process of how our Craftsmen make these cuckoo clocks we have around roughly 35 to 40 families who live here in the Black Forest who work on making these clocks they generally work during the winter to earn some extra cash and everybody has their own work cut out for them so some they are responsible for making the front decoration some are responsible for carving the top decoration and some are responsible for building the house for your cuckoo bird and when we look at the casing we see it has various openings one for the pendulum one is for the strings to come out one is for the clock and this on the top is for the cuckoo bird and how the carvings and the decorations are done is quite interesting so a piece of wood is taken the tensils are placed and sprayed on and then they are carved out carving is usually done using traditional tools like these they have roughly around 40 chisels with which our Craftsman work with and once everything has been carved out and is ready the assembly takes place so first the casing which was carved out is taken then from decoration it is placed like this and at the very end you have the top decoration and this is how we make a simple cuckoo clock but that’s not all we have more also especially what goes inside our cucko clocks are these mechanisms right over here our cucko clocks have two different types of Weights one are the smaller ones that drop down really fast and needs to be wound every single day and they use the smaller mechanism right over here and there are clocks with bigger weights like these that drop down gradually and needs to be wound once in every 8 days and they use this bigger mechanism right over here and now if you remember we had a look at a fun clock which has three weights why the third weight it was for the dancers and they use this mechanisms right over here because on this rotating surface we put our figurines and now what gives the cuckoo bird her voice are these Bellows right over here made out of wood and this material over here is a combination of cotton and nylon let’s have a [Music] look so this is how the cucko bird she gets voice and now for the clock with dancers they cannot be dancing without music right so we have this tiny little music box that we place inside our clocks everything is made here in Germany except for this music box that we take from Switzerland when we play it out normally it’s not so loud it’s not so good right let us attach it to this wooden casing over here and see magic happen it’s just that the wood it acts as an amplifier and the sound it resonates better and that’s all from us about the history of cuckoo clocks and how they are made here in the Black Forest we look forward to your visit and we hope you have a wonderful experience over here thank you so I’m looking forward to welcome you here at Huch Dan and in the black forest first I really would love to meet you here personally so let me say thank you that you followed me and my tour through huchon and I’m looking forward to see you so thank you and goodbye bye-bye [Music]
Immerse yourself in the enchanting beauty of Germany’s iconic Schwarzwald—the fabled Black Forest—as you follow local guide Dalma Bracksmeier through a stunning landscape of dense firs. Discover a rich tapestry of local trees, plants and fruits that have been integral to the lives of those who call the Black Forest home. Learn how these natural treasures have influenced German culture over the centuries, from the region’s famed cuckoo clocks to decadent Black Forest Cake.
Broadcast on Viking.TV on May 31, 2024.
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