Franz Ketterer (1676–1749) was an early Black Forest clockmaker from Schönwald im Schwarzwald in Germany.
[1] In his 1976 book Gerd Bender suggested that Franz Ketterer invented prototype cuckoo clocks in 1730.
[5][6] 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.
[1] In 1993, the renovated festival hall in Schönwald was dedicated to Franz Ketterer and named the Uhrmacher-Ketterer-Halle.
[3] The Black Forest Museum in Schönwald offers information about how Ketterer may have come to invent the cuckoo clock.