Franz Ketterer

{{Short description|German clockmaker}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2024}}

Franz Ketterer (1676–1749) was an early Black Forest clockmaker from Schönwald im Schwarzwald in Germany. According to historians, he was one of several possible inventors of the cuckoo clock, although historical records from this period are scarce and often conflicting, and no cuckoo clock made by Ketterer can be found today.{{Cite book |last=Kochmann |first=Karl |title=Black Forest clockmaker and the cuckoo clock |date=1998 |publisher=Clockworks Press |isbn=9780963166913 |pages=4–5}} In his 1976 book Gerd Bender suggested that Franz Ketterer invented prototype cuckoo clocks in 1730.{{Efn|Karl Karmarsch wrote in his article on "Dilger, Simon" for the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (1877) that the cuckoo clock was invented by Anton Ketterer, speculating that he was the son of Franz Ketterer. {{cite book|chapter=Dilger, Simon|title=Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie|date=1877|url=https://de.wikisource.org/wiki/ADB:Dilger,_Simon|access-date=2024-07-06|last=Karmarsch|first=Karl|volume=5|pages=224–225}}}} Others have suggested that the cuckoo clock was invented around 1735,{{Cite web |title=Wie die Kuckucksuhr in den Schwarzwald kam |url=https://www.deutscheuhrenstrasse.de/fr/lhorloge-et-la-foret-noire/histoires-de-la-foret-noire/wie-die-kuckucksuhr-in-den-schwarzwald-kam.html |access-date=2024-07-06 |website=30 Jahre Deutsche Uhrenstraße, 1992–2022 |publisher=Arbetsgemeinschaft Detusche Uhrenstraße |language=fr}} 1737,{{Cite web |date=21 May 2023 |title=German Clock Road |url=https://www.deutschland.de/en/topic/culture/town-and-country/entdecke-de-german-clock-road |access-date=2024-07-06 |website=Deutschland.de}} or 1738.{{Cite news |last=Peregrine |first=Anthony |date=4 September 2005 |title=Totally cuckoo in the Black Forest |url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/totally-cuckoo-in-the-black-forest-7xxgwnh6nqg |access-date=2024-07-07 |work=The Sunday Times}}{{Cite news |last=Siemes |first=Christof |date=9 March 2006 |title=Und ewig singt die Kuckucksuhr |trans-title=And the cuckoo clock sings forever |url=https://www.zeit.de/2006/11/Schwarzwald_neu/komplettansicht |access-date=2024-07-06 |work=Zeit Online |publisher=Die Zeit |language=de}}

According to author Karl Kochmann, Franz Ketterer and his wife Anna (née Winterhalder) had nine children; their youngest child and only son was born in 1734. Named Franz Anton Ketterer, he also became a clockmaker.

In 1993, the renovated festival hall in Schönwald was dedicated to Franz Ketterer and named the Uhrmacher-Ketterer-Halle. The Black Forest Museum in Schönwald offers information about how Ketterer may have come to invent the cuckoo clock.