Dieter Weberuss from Friesdorf 75-year-old clockmaker gives up his business after a break-in
BAD GODESBERG · Since 1975, Dieter Weberuss runs his own clockmaker business in Friesdorf. After a break-in last year, he is now about to close the shop. He is not looking for a successor - mainly due to today's throwaway society.
The time seems to be standing still in the workshop behind the clock and jewellery store of Dieter Weberuss. He is concentrating, looking through his magnifying glasses at a miniature housing of a clock. A tiny gearwheel seems to be malfunctioning. Weberuss takes a tiny pincer and fixes the problem. A broken glass, a bit of dirt or the old screw which needs replacement - the 75-year-old knows how to fix clock problems. But this case intrigues him.To repair this clockwork under his desk lamp brings a real sense of achievement.
How did the passion for clocks come about? Well, he says, he’s a successor of the traditional company of the Weberuss Brothers in Schwenning. And the Swabian tinge in his speech is exactly what draws other Swabians into the Annabergerstraße 121a. „My uncles wanted me to take over the family company and sent me to the school of fine mechanics at age 13“, Weberuss recalls. At the age of 17, he was already setting machines and taking over responsibility. He gently strokes one of the gems from those production times. In all corners of the shop there is ticking to be heard. Again and again, the clocks strike the quarter hour.
„We live in throwaway times“
Well, it was love which drew him to Bonn, Weberuss explains. He started a family, became a father. He worked for Bild in Bonn, did his master school certificate in 1968 during night classes in Cologne. The 75-year-old points to a silver 50 sign and the master certificate on the wall. 1972, he decided to start his own business, opposite the police station at the Wilhelmsplatz. „And eight days after the police offices moved, something got stolen for the first time.“ Soon, he had enough of that quarter and took over the traditional shop Keldenich in Friesdorf, which was established since 1932. Oh, wonderful times, he says, looking back at times when the hairdressser, the butcher, the textile shop and the vegetable store were working next door to each other. The diplomats’ wives selected the jewellery from his shop window, everybody came to get the watches fixed by Weberuss. „But today, the thieves come.“
Clearance sale due to the close of business
The clockmaker master points to the broken window from 2017. Bulletproof glass, plus front and back glass panels - nobody gets through that, he comments. „If you want to get in through that, you must be seriously wacky.“ But the material and symbolic damage hurt Weberuss. „Clearance sale due to close of business“ it says on the wind now. „I am selling slowly, because I am in no rush“, he says. „Cutthroats“ are not getting their hands on his stock. And he is not looking for a successor, who would have to close due to the high rent soon anyway. „Our profession is dying out. We live in throwaway times.“
One customer, another Swabian, called Martin Ammermüller, says: „He is still analog, but most customers are thinking digital already.“ Soon, nobody will be repairing the family’s watches anymore. In the past, everybody bought confirmation gifts at Weberuss’ shop. „Those times are also over.“
But when the master shows his „darlings“, his eyes shine like always. He shows the former soccer clock from the 1960s: At the full hour, a player kicks a ball towards a goalkeeper.
In the backroom, an ancient American regulator with painting behind glass sits on a shelf, proudly. „Every era has its own clockworks. I couldn’t resist, I had to get to know this one from 1850 and needed to have it in my repair shop“, sighs Weberuss. (Original text: Ebba Hagenberg-Miliu, Translation: Mareike Graepel)
