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Julien\u2019s Auctions<\/a> is auctioning off<\/a> over 450 items that belonged to the late Kraftwerk<\/a> co-founder Florian Schneider. Among the recording equipment and memorabilia available to bid on are Schneider\u2019s 1964 Volkswagen van, the Panasonic bicycle he rode in the 1984 music video for a remix of \u201cTour De France<\/a>,\u201d a number of woodwind and brass instruments\u2014including the 1960s Orsi alto flute that appeared on the back cover of Kraftwerk\u2019s 1970 self-titled debut\u2014and a rack case of Votrax speech synthesizer units, which the band used to create the robot voices that opened all of their concerts between 1981 and 2002. The auction takes place on Wednesday, November 18, in Nashville, Tennessee, and online at the Julien\u2019s Auctions website<\/a>.<\/p>\n Schneider died<\/a> in 2020 at the age of 73. A classically trained flautist, he met Ralf H\u00fctter at the D\u00fcsseldorf Conservator and the duo founded Kraftwerk in 1970. Schneider was fascinated by technology\u2014particularly in the field of speech synthesis\u2014and extremely protective of his innovations; he held several patents during his lifetime, including for a synth-vocal processor known as Robovox. David Bowie<\/a> titled \u201cV-2 Schneider,\u201d from 1977\u2019s Heroes<\/em><\/a>, after him. Schneider left Kraftwerk in 2008 and did not return for any the group\u2019s reunion shows.<\/p>\n Revisit Ben Cardew\u2019s essay \u201cRemembering Florian Schneider, Who Brought Sonic Perfectionism and Humor to Kraftwerk<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n