According to an article summarized in the German email news service
DE-NEWS, on Sunday 17 December 2000, the city council of Weitkirch,
in the district of Emmendingen, has suggested that the town allocate
around 15 million marks to purchase "the largest collection of European
mechanical musical instruments."
The town fathers hope that the collection of organs will promote
tourism in the area, however, many citizens are against the expenditure
so a referendum vote has been scheduled. [The town budgets in many
cities of western Germany are severely strained.]
MMDer Matthew Walworth, of Littleton CO, forwarded the news article
to MMD but I paraphrased it since it's likely copyrighted. (The short
summary gives no hint of what the source of the instruments might be.)
The listserver version of the article was published by
http://www.mathematik.uni-ulm.de/de-news
I can't locate Weitkirch on my map, but Emmendingen lies only 10
kilometers down the Elz River from Waldkirch and the Black Forest
of Germany. Maybe Wolfgang Brommer can tell us more details.
Robbie Rhodes
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