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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