Get your hands on a synth used on Kraftwerk’s Autobahn – Florian Schneider gear collection to be auctioned next month

The instruments and equipment that helped Kraftwerk redefine electronic music are set to find new homes. Nearly 500 personal items belonging to the band’s co-founder, Florian Schneider, will be auctioned by Julien’s Auctions next month, offering fans and collectors a rare glimpse into the creative tools behind one of the genre’s most influential acts.

The sale will take place on 19 November at the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, Tennessee, and is expected to fetch between $450,000 to $650,000. Among the highlights is Schneider’s EMS Synthi AKS suitcase synthesiser, thought to have been used on Kraftwerk’s landmark 1974 album Autobahn, valued between $15,000 and $20,000.

According to notes from the Florian Schneider Estate, this was the first synth acquired by Kraftwerk in around 1972 and is the only EMS Synthi that Florian owned, and was used at Kraftwerk’s Kling Klang studio. Features include three oscillators, a 16×16 pin matrix, 20 pins, ring modulator, envelope filter, reverberation, and more.

“It’s a very early synthesizer, in the form of a suitcase, so it’s quite unusual,” says Giles Moon, head of music at Julien’s Auctions. “It’s the first synthesizer they acquired in the early 1970s when Florian decided to stop using classical instruments. He would attach it to his flute and use it to process these amazing sounds.”

That flute – an Orsi G alto Schneider performed with until 1974 – is also up for sale, estimated at $8,000 to $10,000. Meanwhile, a late ‘70s Sennheiser VSM 201 vocoder believed to have been used on The Man-Machine (1978) and Computer World (1981) could fetch between $20,000 to $40,000.

Other lots include Schneider’s collection of over 100 brass and woodwind instruments, a bright yellow acrylic guitar, his custom-painted VW panel van, a stage played Hameg HM 107 tube oscillograph, and his Panasonic Panaracer bicycle featured in Kraftwerk’s Tour de France video. Even his gold-framed green sunglasses and the Polaroid photos of him wearing them are part of the sale.

Schneider’s estate says the auction honours his wish for his instruments and creations to “continue living beyond him”.

“He always believed that they are meant to be played and shared – not left unused or gathering dust in storage,” a spokesperson says.

Kraftwerk’s influence on electronic and pop music remains immeasurable, inspiring artists from David Bowie and New Order to Run-DMC and Coldplay.

Describing the band as “groundbreaking”, Moon says, “They were one of the first bands that used synthesisers and they created music that no one had ever heard of before. It was very unworldly and it moved music forward in a way nobody had ever seen, in a totally different direction that most people probably didn’t think was even possible… It inspired a lot of bands to move in the direction of using synthesized electronic music.”

Stephen Morris of New Order adds, “Autobahn was an album that made us all sit up and say: what’s this? They were doing something different … something completely new – they were consciously rejecting the past. A lot of New Order’s approach was like that.”

Check out the full collection at Julien’s Auctions.