The vocoder of late Kraftwerk co-founder Florian Schneider has sold at auction for $256,000.

The Kling Klang Sennheiser VSM-201 vocoder, with an estimated worth of $30,000 to $50,000, sold for more than a quarter of a million US dollars as part of a collection of Schneider's production kit, musical kit and other personal items auctioned by Juliens. Bidding ended on 19th November.

Totalling 461 items, "The Florian Schneider Collection", much of which sold for higher than the estimated value, included: hardware like an EMS Synthi A suitcase synthesiser and 1930s Telefunken Volks-Trautonium pre-synthesiser; personal transportation vehicles such as Panasonic Panaracer bicycle from the 1983 'Tour de France' remix music video and a 1964 Volkswagen Type 2/T1 Kastenwagen; and memorabilia like his 1968 German passport, a 1971 cassette light and a copy of the 'Kraftwerk 2' LP signed to his mother. 

Florian Schneider, who died in 2020, co-founded Kraftwerk with Ralf Hütter in 1970 and left the group in 2008. The current line-up has announced their first UK tour since 2017 for next year and quickly had to add dates due to "exceptional demand".

Earlier this year, Kraftwerk celebrated 50 years of its influential 1974 album 'Autobahn' with a special edition vinyl release. 

Find all of Schneider's auctioned items and their final selling price here.