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Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Rudesheim, Germany - Siegfried's Mechanical Music Cabinet Museum

A popular attraction in Rudesheim (pronounced Rude-ess-heim) is the Siegfried's Mechanical Music Cabinet Museum.  It is an impressive collection of a wide variety of players. Siegfried Wendel started rescuing and refurbishing these in the 1960s as they were being discarded as scrap metal.  In the museum are prototype jukeboxes, hand-cranked carnival machines and monstrous pianolas.










 This is a collection of silver boxes that play songbird tunes.


 The tile floor.


 An example of his workshop.
The most amazing machine was an orchestrion, a huge machine that played all of the instruments of an orchestra.  Loud...but amazing to watch it play six violins in harmony.


I did an internet search on Siegfried Wendel and found a wide variety of photos.  He has recently passed away and his sons will take over the rescue and restoration, as well as ongoing maintenance of the machines.

Here are a few items from the gift shop.



 You can estimate that euros = US Dollars to get an idea on the cost of these silver music boxes.


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