Emerging from the private collection of Georg Neuner (1904-1962), the “Sound Museum” has now been home to the fourth floor of the Munich City Museum for almost 50 years. Approximately one-fifth of the nearly 6,000 musical instruments and sound objects, more than half come from non-European countries are displayed in the publicly accessible part of the collection.

The museum owns nearly 5000 European and non-European musical instruments, an iconographic collection, as well as a collection of historic sound storage mediums, including approximately 3500 piano rolls for player pianos and numerous graphemes. This collection includes mechanical instruments as well as playback devices such as barrel organs, musical string mechanisms, symphoniums, pneumatic players, as well as disc players utilizing the Edison system. Most of the materials were produced in the Hupfeld factory.

3,200 musical instruments from all over the world can be found in the “Paulus-Schlössel”, including the largest collection of Vogtland’s string, plucked and wind instruments from the 17th century to the present day. The visitor also gets an insight into the variety of musical instruments from Africa, America and Asia. Old instrument workshops and an original trading office in the Gerber-Hans-Haus tell of the more than 300 years old tradition of Vogtland musical instrument making.

The Musical Instruments Museum of the State Institute of Music Research collects musical instruments of European art music from the 16th to the 21st century. At present, the museum has around 3,500 instruments, many of which are in playable condition. A good 800 instruments can be seen in the show collection. It is in its diversity one of the most representative collections in Germany.

In our organ building hall and exhibition rooms the organ lover will find everything that makes his heart beat faster. Discover precision mechanical marvels and masterfully carved classic craftsmanship Lovingly developed didactic models let you take a look “behind the scenes” – from the elaborate mechanics to the MIDI-controlled barrel organ.