New Museum Director Nicole Deisenberger // 06/07/2021

German Clock Museum Furtwangen

The German Clock Museum Furtwangen has a new director: on June 1, 2021 Nicole Deisenberger succeeded Eduard C. Saluz, who retired in 2020. The German Clock Museum is part of Furtwangen University. The international museum certainly informs tourists about the history of the cuckoo clock, but it is also an important research institution for clocks and time generally. "The most important aspect of my previous museum work was the desire to think outside the box working in an interdisciplinary way," says Nicole Deisenberger. "We are very pleased to have Ms. Deisenberger on board as the new Museum Director, who will bring fresh impetus to the German Clock Museum," emphasizes Prof. Dr. Rolf Schofer, President of Furtwangen University.

After studying Empirical Cultural Studies and Art History in Tübingen and Paris, Nicole Deisenberger completed internships in the Folklore Department of the Württemberg State Museum and at the Museum of Everyday Culture in Waldenbuch. What followed were positions as Director of the Local History Museum in Fridingen an der Donau and as Managing Director of the Hans Bucher Foundation, the City Museum and the Museum of Germans from Hungary in Gerlingen, in addition to a position as Curator of Popular Prints in the Folklore Department of the Württemberg State Museum.

"All my activities focused on the area of art and cultural education. From 2010 on I was Head of Art Education at the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart. In addition, I taught education courses at the Institute of Art History of the University of Tübingen and at the Ludwigsburg University of Education, as well as functioning as a mentor at the MFG (Media and Film Society) Baden-Württemberg," explains the new Director of the German Clock Museum.

"I am very much looking forward to my new job," emphasises Deisenberger. "The German Clock Museum in Furtwangen has an important and extensive clock-making collection and is also part of Furtwangen University. I see great potential here for the future and I am very keen to encourage ongoing cooperation between the museum and the individual departments of the university in the form of projects. Cooperation with other museums, as well as with schools and kindergartens in the region will be an important and fundamental aspect of my work at the German Clock Museum in Furtwangen."

Black Forest tourism has been booming in the last few years. The Clock Museum can also take advantage of this. "In my opinion, science and tourism are not two separate things, but highly dependent on each other. It is a question of education. This is a challenge that I am happy to take on in the future," says Nicole Deisenberger. "The subjects of digital media and social media will also have to be looked at more closely."

"It is also important for me that we all work as one big team at the Clock Museum in Furtwangen. All employees, from cleaning and visitor reception staff, to the guides and research staff, must be sensitised to education and customer service. We want our visitors to take home a positive experience from our museum and be happy to come back again.“

There are several jobs on the to-do list of the German Clock Museum: first and foremost, digitisation. The collection of the German Clock Museum contains more than 8,000 objects from around the world. The museum's display collection of more than 1,200 clocks is now fully accessible via the national online "museum-digital" database. What makes the Furtwangen collection so special is that the museum displays both everyday clocks and precious rarities side by side. The Corona-related closure period was also used to take this major step into digitisation. Now, as the museum opens again for national and international guests, tourism and marketing will increase in importance, not least through new tourism partnerships which have been set up in the Hochschwarzwald area.