9.13

…but Verify

Around 1850 the town clerk, Johannes Bürk, and the clockmaker, Michael Vosseler, both of Schwenningen, created a portable time recorder for monitoring night watchmen. Bürk founded the “Württembergische Uhrenfabrik Schwenningen WUS” (Württemberg Clock Factory Schwenningen) in 1855 in order to manufacture it.

This marked the founding of the clock industry in the Württemberg portion of the Black Forest. The time recorder proved to be a major success and soon the company expanded its programme. Johannes Bürk died unexpectedly in 1872. His son Richard Bürk took over the management of the company at a mere twenty-one years of age and developed the WUS into a leading provider of time recorders and time systems of all kinds.

Other companies in Schwenningen manufactured specialized clocks, such as time recorders for carrier pigeon competitions.

To this day, integrated systems for access control and time control are being manufactured in Schwenningen. However, these systems are no longer ticking on the inside.