Rombach & Haas, a family-owned clock manufacturer since 1894, has been elegantly fighting back. Among its wares are elaborate carved timepieces that rotate on a one- or eight-day schedule, combining cuckoo calls with “The Happy Wanderer” and “Edelweiss,” but the daughter of the family, Selina Kreyer (née Haas), is taking the company in a new direction. A graphic designer by trade, Kreyer was tasked during her studies to develop a marketing concept for a fictitious company. “I used Rombach & Haas and gave it a more modern look,” she says. Out of that, Selina Haas Design was born.
As she leads me through her workshop, I see how the past and present collide. The drawers of the wonky cupboards are piled with the carved parts of clocks, miniature ballet dancers, and crimson birds, but the modern clocks are painted lime green or neon yellow, or papered with comic art. One sleek piece has a bright red cardinal—or rather, a minimalist impression of one—living inside a jet-black house. Though the pieces are contemporary in style, their internal mechanics look as they would have 250 years ago. Kreyer’s goal is to keep this kind of legacy craftsmanship alive: “How can we bring the Black Forest back to the forefront?” she says. “That’s always been my focus.”
When Ernest Hemingway came to soak up the High Black Forest in 1922, he stayed for 22 days. Unfortunately, a century later, the average stay is just two and a half days. But an extended holiday is all the more alluring at the area’s new, revamped lodgings. The sustainable hospitality company Stuub has snapped up unused and rundown buildings in 11 rural spots around Titisee-Neustadt and transformed them into simple yet elegant retreats. When I checked in at the location in Staufen, I found guest rooms dressed in calming grays, taupes, and other earth tones. As the Stuub website promised, there was “no cherry cake, no lace doilies, and no Bollenhut,” referring to the region’s signature hat topped with woolen pompoms.
Meanwhile, in Baden-Baden—famous for its ornate bathhouses, elderly repeat visitors, and grandiose Art Nouveau and Baroque character—the Belle Époque–style Brenners Park-Hotel & Spa, built in 1834 on the edge of the Lichtentaler Allee park and arboretum, has gotten a facelift: The façade, balcony floors, and 79 rooms and suites have been carefully stripped back and reimagined. “The revitalized Brenners symbolizes the changes taking place in the Black Forest,” says hotel director Stephan Boesch as he leads me through the hotel, pointing out all-new interior fabrics and preserved details like historical staircases, doors, and window frames. “We are renewing ourselves without forgetting the good old traditions.”
The environment itself, too, is being nurtured by a mindful young vanguard. Nadine Berger is one of 10 rangers at the Black Forest National Park, where the woodland is “getting wilder again.” Through their efforts, “we are allowing nature to be itself,” she says. A naturally diverse mix of species—spruce and fir and beech—is thriving, and fallen trees are left to nourish the ecosystem. Endangered and near-extinct species are back: adders, garden dormice, three-toed woodpeckers, and wood grouse; fungi such as lemon yellow Trametes and fountain-like Hericium flagellum, or “white icicle.” Dense mosses carpet the trunks of this dappled green world, which feels almost tropical. Veering off the narrow path is not advised—not because of the witches the Brothers Grimm warned of but to protect this precious wilderness. “Climate determines how we live,” Berger says. “A diversity of species determines if we live.” The fairy tale is getting a modern update, but in the best possible way.
