Museum Geiserschmiede

The Museum Geiserschmiede stands in Bühlertal, a village in the Black Forest foothills beside the Bühlot stream. It occupies a building at least 300 years old that once housed a water-driven mill. In 1891 the mill wheel was adapted to power a hammer forge, turning it into a smithy that worked until 1961. The museum preserves the last working example of this kind of rural forge in the region. Exhibits explain how the Geiser brothers, Eugen and Josef, forged tools for local farms and forests. Volunteers restored the entire site in more than 7 500 hours of unpaid labour before the museum opened in 1999. In 2002 it received an award from the regional heritage group for its high standard of preservation. Visitors see the original waterwheel, trip-hammer and bellows still in place. Demonstrations show how red-hot iron was shaped on the anvil. Panels and touch screens tell the story of the village and the craftsmen who kept the forge running for seven decades. The forge stands beside the stream, surrounded by meadows and wooded hills typical of the northern Black Forest.