TRACING A GERMAN EMIGRANT FAMILY
Michael Morath was my clockmaker ancestor. He was born on 12 July 1801 and baptised in the church in Hinterzarten, which is situated in the Black Forest near Freiberg. Michael’s father was Simon Morath and his mother Maria (Schuhlerin). Simon was also a clockmaker – one of the largest clockmakers in Hinterzarten in fact – and his descendants (sons Johannes and Michael) were to take their watchmaker tradition from Hinterzarten to Lenzkirch, then to London, and fi nally to Australia.
The origins of the Cuckoo clock
Around 1600 in the Black Forest area near Freiberg, the people were very poor, and their main means of earning money was agriculture. The soil was not very good and it was hard to make a living. Some of the farmers were clever with their hands and made wooden clocks in one of the rooms in the farmhouse, and the earliest tools used were a pair of compasses, a small saw, drills and a knife. The wheel cutting machine was invented in 1725. The fi rst Black Forest striking clock was produced in 1740, and later metal was used for the mechanism. Some local genius substituted the cuckoo for the striking bells (this invention was believed to be about 1730), and other birds followed – thrushes, blackbirds, and nightingales. The cases were handsomely carved, usually in the shape of a mountain chalet. The end of the 18th century was the most prosperous time for the Black Forest clockmakers. At the museum in Triberg there are clocks of all shapes and sizes, and there is a similar museum in Furtwangen where one clock is almost 300 years old.
Clockmakers on the move
In a small village near Freiburg called St Peters, there was a monastery, and one of the monks here suggested to the Government that they should subsidise the farmers who were making clocks to help them make more money. The Government agreed and, as a result, young men were taught how to make and repair clocks, and were then sent to various cities of Europe to set up businesses to promote the Black Forest wooden clocks.