Established 150 years ago - The school for clock manufacturers in Furtwangen by Helmut Kahlert

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The students spent well over 75% of their training time in the workshops and barely 25% in the trade school, which was subdivided into different classes. Major condition to be admitted to the school, was the minimum age of 14 and a good elementary school education, which however - especially with applicants from smaller villages - was not always possible. Tuition was not demanded.
The estimated time of training and education was to be three years, although on an average it was actually less than two years. During the school year of 1851/52 the workshop for pocket watches was in its full capacity with 18 students and the workshop for clocks with spring mechanisms nearly full with 17 students. The employed personnel at that time amounted to twelve persons, four among them were workshop trainers and three of them trade school teachers for the subjects technology and design as well as economy and foreign languages.

In 1857 Robert Gerwig resigned his position as school director, being already involved in the planning of the Black Forest railroad, which later was to make him very famous. The clock maker school was re-structured and also changed its objectives. While in the beginning the weekly training amounted to 62 hours, it was later increased to a customary 66 hours in the pocket watch workshop and an even higher number in the department for spring mechanism clocks.

Between 1850 and 1857 even a modern pedagogue would have considered the school as a definite vocational trade school, although the definition ”economy near training workshop” was more fitting for the years to come. Vacation time was never considered at the clock maker school, ”since the habit of getting used to vacation seemed totally out of place for a future businessman or skilled worker”. Holidays were merely granted - as was customary in the Black Forest - on Saturday before Easter Sunday, the last week of the year and of course the day of the fair and a carnival day. By the end of the year 1863 the clock maker school closed down.
The Ministry of Trade was of the opinion, that meanwhile the number of the hitherto trained students was sufficient enough in order to give the clock trade new impulses. This was also the opinion in general, although a continued promotion of pocket watches would have been welcome. In retrospect however, the Black Forest pocket watch had little chance to compete with those of other countries. There was resistance against a wide spread division of labor, an appropriate supply industry was not available, the major problem however - not enough sales.

Pocket watches were not as easy to sell on markets as the Black Forest home clocks. Furthermore, the market was controlled by Swiss and British products.
The disappointing sales results, the Baden participants of the world fair experienced, especially in Vienna in 1873 and Philadelphia in 1876, combined with a report of 1877, led to the decision to continue the clock maker school in Furtwangen, although in a much leaner way, considering personnel and equipment. However, the pocket watch manufacturing for the market was considered no longer.

Since 1910 the school’s official name is ”Technical College for Clock Manufacturing and Precision Engineering”, where not only trainees but also foremen and designers are educated. When inquiring about the old clock maker school in Furtwangen, two significant education units will be discovered, a widely structured vocational school facility by the name Rober-Gerwig-Schule and a University for Applied Science where technology, data processing and economy can be studied.

(authorized by the publisher
"Lahrer Hinkenden Boten").

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