In MMD 2004.06.14 Marcus Pregler talked about a rare self-playing
zither, named "Volks-Klavier", and asked for more information.
As far as I know, nobody sent any response.

Meanwhile I could acquire exactly that instrument and restore it.
First I worked very hard because I could not succeed in making the
correct adjustments.  The instrument would not play until I found out
how to adjust the hammers with a tolerance of a tenth of a millimeter
(sorry that I use the metric measures).  I never saw an instrument with
such a tricky, simple and effective construction to adjust the hammers.
Now it plays very nicely!

I am interested in learning more about that really rare instrument.
I know about only two specimens of it: this one which I have and one
other I saw last summer in the Deutsches Musikautomaten Museum in
Schloss Bruchsal.  My instrument measures 56 x 29 x 14 cm, it plays
34 notes on 34 strings from folding cardboards.

I searched through all my literature but the only hint I found is in
Bowers' "Encyclopedia" on page 356 (as Marcus Pregler already mentioned).
Nowhere is any illustration, no word about who manufactured it, when
and where -- only the name on the instrument itself indicates that it
was made in Germany ("Volks-Klavier" translates as "people's piano").

I am pretty sure that there must be some more specimens of this type
of instrument, still alive somewhere in the world.  But who knows about
them and their history?  It would be great to get as much information
about the Volks Klavier as possible!

Looking forward to your help,

Christian Greinacher
Germany

 [ Thanks, Christian, I'll place the photo at the MMD Pictures site,
 [ http://mmd.foxtail.com/Pictures/  -- Robbie