Orchestrions, music boxes, jukeboxes, barrel organs, musical everyday objects like sewing boxes and clothes hangers, androids, self-playing grand pianos, organettes, “mobile discos” and many other objects are ready to be discovered in the German Museum of Mechanical Musical Instruments.

The museum houses around 500 pieces on three stories, illustrating the many different facets of the German term “Musikautomaten”. They began to be hand crafted in the 17th century, enjoyed their peak at the end of the 19th century, and have been declining in popularity since the 1920s. However, the transition to new reproduction media of the 20th and 21st century, including the phonograph, gramophone, radio, dictaphone, record player, cassette, CD, MP3 player and Youtube and iTunes is  also included in the exhibition.

The musical instruments are displayed within their original environments at media stations, allowing visitors to experience and understand them as status symbols in a living room, for instance, or entertainment media in a hotel or cinema. Audio recordings of the characteristic sounds of each instrument can be played at the push of a button.