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As a innovator in the electronic genre with the group the pioneering act redefined mainstream melodies and influenced artists including Bowie, New Order, Coldplay, and Run-DMC.

Currently, the musical tools along with devices employed by Schneider to create some of the band’s best-known songs during the '70s and '80s are estimated to earn substantial bids when they are sold in a November auction.

Exclusive Preview of Final Individual Composition

Music from an independent endeavor the artist was developing just before he died from cancer in his seventies in 2020 is available initially in a video about the auction.

Extensive Collection of His Items

Together with the compact synthesizer, his wind instrument and robotic voice devices – that he employed creating mechanical-sounding vocals – enthusiasts will get a chance to buy approximately 500 items from his estate in the sale.

Among them are his collection exceeding 100 wind and brass items, numerous Polaroid photographs, his shades, the ID used on tour through the late '70s and his VW panel van, which he custom-painted grey.

His Panasonic Panaracer bicycle, featured for the Tour de France clip and shown on the cover art, will be auctioned this November 19.

Bidding Particulars

The approximate sum for the auction is $450,000 to $650,000.

They were innovators – as pioneers employing synthesizers producing sounds that no one had ever heard of before.

Other bands considered their music astonishing. They suddenly discovered an innovative direction within sound that Kraftwerk created. It encouraged numerous artists to explore synthesizer-based tunes.

Featured Lots

• An effects unit that is likely the one Kraftwerk used in productions The Man Machine in 1978 and early '80s work could fetch $30,000 to $50,000.
• The portable EMS model believed to be employed on Kraftwerk’s 1974 album the famous record has an estimate of a mid-range sum.
• His wind instrument, an Orsi G alto played by him alongside electronic gear until 1974, carries an estimate of up to five figures.

Unique Belongings

For smaller budgets, a collection with dozens of snapshots he captured showing his musical tools is on sale for a modest sum.

Other quirky objects, like a clear, bright yellow acrylic guitar and a “very unique” insect replica, which was mounted at his studio, may go for a few hundred.

The musician's green-lens sunglasses plus snapshots showing him with these could sell for $300 to $500.

Estate’s Statement

He always believed that instruments should be used and circulated – not left unused or collecting dust. He hoped his equipment to be passed to people who appreciate them: artists, gatherers and admirers through music.

Ongoing Legacy

Reflecting on Kraftwerk’s influence, one noted musician stated: “From the early days, they inspired us. Autobahn was an album that had us sit up and say: what is this?. They were doing innovative work … fresh sounds – they deliberately moved past the past.”