The corona pandemic and its complex consequences have paralyzed numerous trades.
Even the cuckoo clock manufacturers in the Black Forest feel this.
The Passion Play in Oberammergau also play a role in this.
Schonach / Wiesbaden - The production of cuckoo clocks in Germany fell by more than half last year.
The manufacturers produced around 20,100 cuckoo clocks worth 4.1 million euros, as the Federal Statistical Office announced on Tuesday in Wiesbaden.
In 2019 there were around 43,600 pieces worth EUR 8.5 million.
The fact that the decline of almost 54 percent is clearly above the minus for other wall clocks (around 17 percent) is explained by the statisticians primarily due to the lack of tourism due to Corona - and should be correct.
The big manufacturers, who primarily produced for holidaymakers, were hit very hard, said Andreas Kreyer from the “Verein die Schwarzwalduhr” in Schonach (Schwarzwald-Baar district).
“They are still suffering from it.” Exports have also suffered.
According to Kreyer, one important reason is not in the Black Forest, but in the Bavarian Alps: the Passion Play has usually been held in Oberammergau for centuries every ten years. “The event is driving up sales,” said Kreyer, who runs the Rombach & Haas company in Schonach with his wife. Due to Corona, the amateur play of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus was canceled last year and postponed to 2022.
After all, this had the consequence that the stores were well filled.
The companies will benefit from this later because the cuckoo clock trade is now also affected by the omnipresent delivery bottlenecks.
In particular, smaller manufacturers and suppliers of clockworks, for example, had short-time work during the lockdowns, said Kreyer.
In addition, the prices for wood rose, less of which would be harvested.
"We don't have the material that we have on our doorstep."
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Price increases are also having an impact on brass for clockworks or cast iron for weights.
Since these would be made of steel with high energy consumption, rising energy costs played a further role.
“You also don't get any more lacquers and stains,” said Kreyer.
And even with corrugated cardboard and cardboard boxes for shipping, he waits several months for orders.
"Even there we have bottlenecks."
The fact that the Federal Statistical Office deals with cuckoo clocks at the end of October has, in addition to a possible love for craft, a very practical reason: on the night of Sunday (October 31) the clocks are set back an hour - then winter time applies.
"In purely arithmetical terms, people therefore have an hour more sleep," explained the statisticians - "if the cuckoo doesn't wake them up".
dpa
