The Black Forest

The Schwarzwald or Black For­est is known inter­na­tion­al­ly for its nat­ur­al beau­ty and out­door recre­ation. Hik­ing and bik­ing trails weave through the for­est to qui­et vil­lages and amaz­ing panora­mas. Tra­di­tion­al hand­i­craft such as cuck­oo clock con­struc­tion and glass­blow­ing are prac­ticed there to this day. Deli­cious local spe­cial­ties like Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte (Black For­est cher­ry cake), cher­ry schnapps, and Black For­est ham are export­ed inter­na­tion­al­ly but always taste bet­ter local­ly. Although you can vis­it year-round, the best time to enjoy the beau­ti­ful land­scapes is from May to Sep­tem­ber or for win­ter sports and activ­i­ties from Decem­ber to February.

Geography

The Black For­est is a sub-Alpine moun­tain­ous region in south­west­ern Ger­many. The region gets its name from the den­si­ty of the for­est block­ing much of the day­light – when the Romans first arrived, they called it “Sil­va nigra.”

It is an area about 120 km (75 mi) long and 60 km (37 mi) wide with two dis­tinct parts char­ac­ter­ized by dif­fer­ent weath­er pat­terns. The North is cov­ered with dense forests thanks to high lev­els of rain, but it is also exposed to west­ern winds. The ter­rain is char­ac­ter­ized by steep changes in ele­va­tion and nar­row val­leys. The South is high­er on aver­age, but it has gen­tler slopes and is shel­tered by the Vos­ges (a low moun­tain range along the bor­der with France), which makes it drier.

In com­par­i­son to oth­er places in Ger­many, the Black For­est has much low­er pop­u­la­tion den­si­ty. As you explore the region, you will find most­ly small towns and vil­lages or even just farm­hous­es stand­ing alone.

Getting There

From Stuttgart, it is easy to reach the Black For­est by car using the sur­round­ing high­ways: the A8 (Stuttgart-Karl­sruhe), A81 (Stuttgart-Sin­gen) and A5 (Karl­sruhe-Basel). Have a look at this map.

Alter­na­tive­ly, it is pos­si­ble to vis­it the Black For­est using pub­lic trans­porta­tion. The whole region has quite a good rail­way net­work and bus con­nec­tions. Bikes and dogs are usu­al­ly per­mit­ted on the trains, and some bus­es even have trail­ers for bikes. Gen­er­al­ly speak­ing, the more touristy an area, the bet­ter the pub­lic trans­port is. Some of the rail­way routes are also very inter­est­ing and scenic.

Most local hotels or hol­i­day apart­ments offer their guests the KONUS Guest Card which allows you to ride region­al trains and bus­es for free.

Culture

Traditional Dress

The Bol­len­hut has become a trade­mark of the Black For­est in the same way the Dirndl and Leder­hose rep­re­sent Bavaria, although this strange wide straw hat with red or black pom-poms (depend­ing on the rela­tion­ship sta­tus of the woman) has been part of the tra­di­tion­al cos­tume of only three com­mu­ni­ties in the Cen­tral Black For­est. You can find them at many sou­venir shops. The region oth­er­wise has a great vari­ety of tra­di­tion­al out­fits, because each com­mu­ni­ty had their own unique way of dress­ing. You can see exam­ples in the Schwarzwald­mu­se­um (Black For­est Muse­um) in Triberg.

Historical farm life

The open-air muse­um Schwarzwälder Freilicht­mu­se­um Vogts­bauern­hof intends to give vis­i­tors a his­tor­i­cal expe­ri­ence of how peo­ple used to live in the Black For­est. It was found­ed in 1964 with the restora­tion of the orig­i­nal farm­stead. Since then, many orig­i­nal struc­tures have been trans­port­ed and recon­struct­ed there, includ­ing mills, store­hous­es, a day laborer’s cot­tage, and a chapel. The build­ings are dec­o­rat­ed, fur­nished, and equipped with authen­tic his­tor­i­cal items from the 16th through 19th cen­turies. Bet­ter yet, crafts­peo­ple in peri­od attire give demon­stra­tions, and in the sum­mer you can eat a local meal pre­pared at the cook­ing demonstration.

Close to the muse­um there is a 1‑km long moun­tain tobog­gan run which takes you on an excit­ing ride down the moun­tains, around bends and through tunnels.

Cuckoo Clocks (Kuckucksuhr)

These clocks are famous the world over, and they got their start in the Black For­est. You can buy all kinds of designs from local man­u­fac­tur­ers, from very tra­di­tion­al house designs to more mod­ern looks. Con­sid­er vis­it­ing Rom­bach & Haas, whose clock-mak­ing his­to­ry goes back 120 years.

The town of Schonach fea­tures one of the cuck­oo clocks that has been award­ed “World’s Largest” by the Guin­ness Book of World Records. It’s 50 times larg­er than a tra­di­tion­al clock and you can even walk inside to see the gears at work.

The Deutsches Uhren­mu­se­um (Ger­man Clock Muse­um) got start­ed more than 150 years ago as part of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Furt­wan­gen, which orig­i­nal­ly offered cours­es in clock­mak­ing. Today it’s an IT school, but the muse­um is still pop­u­lar. It fea­tures more than 8,000 authen­tic Ger­man cuck­oo clocks. Many of them are still func­tion­ing and delight view­ers when they strike the hour.

Glass-blowing

Mouth-blown glass has been an arti­sanal craft in the Black For­est for more than 1,000 years. Today only two glass­works remains open: Dorotheen­hütte in the town of Wol­fach and Glas­man­u­fak­tur Hofgut Ster­nen in Bre­it­nau. There you can vis­it the work­shops to learn about the glass­mak­ing process. You can actu­al­ly see the glass­grinders and glass­blow­ers at work.

At the Dorotheen­hütte, every vis­i­tor has the oppor­tu­ni­ty to blow their own glass vase (with pro­fes­sion­al assis­tance). They also have a muse­um on the his­to­ry of glass­mak­ing. It includes an exhib­it of glass more than 2,000 years old, as well as exhibits on mod­ern uses of glass. There is also an out­let store sell­ing pieces with slight (often near­ly inde­tectable) flaws, plus a ded­i­cat­ed Christ­mas shop full of beau­ti­ful­ly fes­tive decorations.

Mining

The Muse­ums-Berg­w­erk Schauins­land (Min­ing Muse­um of Schauins­land), not far from Freiburg, offers an under­ground expe­ri­ence of three min­ing peri­ods. The Black For­est was a source of sil­ver as well as some oth­er met­als includ­ing iron, cop­per, and lead. Depend­ing on how much you want to learn about met­al ore min­ing and the his­to­ry of min­ing tech­nol­o­gy, you can choose guid­ed tours rang­ing from 45 min­utes to two and a half hours. The reg­u­lar­ly sched­uled tours are in Ger­man, but Eng­lish leaflets are avail­able and groups can book tours in advance in Eng­lish. You can also find infor­ma­tion about mines (no longer in pro­duc­tion) that are open to the public.

Food and Drink

Cake and Brandy

Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte (Black For­est cher­ry cake) is a deca­dent cake that tastes as good as it looks. Choco­late sponge cake is lay­ered in tiers with whipped cream and cher­ries between, doused in Kirschwass­er (cher­ry brandy), then topped with addi­tion­al cream, cher­ries, and choco­late shav­ings on top. The col­or­less, dou­ble-dis­tilled cher­ry brandy is also offered in restau­rants in a small shot after a nice din­ner and is sold in dec­o­ra­tive bot­tles as gifts. The foothills in the west and south are per­fect­ly suit­ed for orchards, which cul­ti­vate not only cher­ries but also plums, apples, and pears.

Ham

Black For­est ham is a bone­less ham, salt­ed and sea­soned with a vari­ety of spices includ­ing pep­per, gar­lic, corian­der, and juniper berries. It is dry cured, cold smoked till it achieves its dis­tinc­tive near­ly black col­or on the out­side, and final­ly air cured once again. If you’ve had Black For­est ham in the USA, you might nev­er have had the real thing – the pro­tect­ed des­ig­na­tion is not respect­ed in the States. Con­sid­er vis­it­ing the Black For­est Ham Muse­um in the Feld­berg Tow­er, open from May to October.

Wine

Germany’s third largest wine region extends into the west­ern foothills of the Black For­est. The wine is sold every­where in local restau­rants. Wine lovers can trav­el the Badis­che Wein­straße (Baden Wine Street), a 160-km (100-mi) long tourist route con­nect­ing Baden-Baden and Weil am Rhein and ded­i­cat­ed to wine. You can taste wine and sim­ple local food at so-called ”Straußen­wirtschaft” or “Besen,” sim­ple wine tav­erns which are oper­at­ed by the wine grow­er and opened only for a few weeks in spring and autumn. In autumn there are many wine fes­ti­vals in the region. Müller-Thur­gau, Graubur­gun­der and Gut­edel are typ­i­cal white wines in the Black For­est, and Spät­bur­gun­der, Schwarzries­ling and Dorn­felder are com­mon reds.