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A very interesting article has occurred in German newspaper Die Welt over the past few weeks I would like to share with you.
Recycled vinyl was one of the main ways the American Record Industry attempted to get around the oil crisis in the early 1970s.By turning old 45 Records back into vinyl chips to be sent back to the pressing plants to be made into new records.
Tens of millions of Old 45s dating from the early 1960s through to the 1970s were sent from record warehouses and shops to special re-cycling centres to be turned back into the raw material for pressing new records. Federal Government officials paid for records by weight. Also Tax breaks were given to companies who sent items in for re-cycling, the system was open to abuse and organised crime got involved.
City's like Detroit, Chicago, New York, Memphis and Los Angeles soon became hotbeds for criminal gangs stealing 45 rpm records on their way for re-cycling. Convoys of trucks were soon assigned armed escorts as precious cargoes of 45s were moved in secrecy overnight throughout the cities in America.
However there was a fly in the ointment, a rich German based Billionaire Industrialist, Wolfgang Vondoof was also an avid music fan with contacts via the Italian Mob into the American music business. He had set out after making his fortune in post war Germany to collect every 45 rpm record ever made in the USA. Initially a Jazz and Blues enthusiast he was captivated by the explosion in youth culture which fuelled the rise of black Rock and Roll music in the 1950's and the birth of Soul music throughout the 1960's.
As time moved forward Wolfgang got more eccentric in his ways, placing mass orders with record companies and distributors directly to get every piece of product that was ever released. He also infiltrated pressing plants to obtain test pressings and rare discs that were meant only for the ears of high ranking label executives and owners, such was the high of his obsession.
He housed his collection in a vast temperature controlled sealed warehouse complex in Bavaria, where he lived in a castle on an estate stretching to over 8,000 hectares surrounded by a veil secrecy. Such was the volume of vinyl arriving that he employed a full time staff of 28 people around the clock, sorting, filing and cataloguing his little 7" treasures.
When news of the American bid to recycle all the old vinyl to make new records, Wolfgang was quick off the mark and mobilised all of his Mob contacts. They intercepted all the vinyl headed for recycling and had shipped it to Germany where it was stored ready for sorting and collating. Bribes to officials kept the paperwork in order at the American side of the Atlantic
Anything that was missing was added into the main body of the collection. Other records were carefully recorded, filed and sorted into boxes of 25,50 or 100 and marked as additional copies for some future use and stored in the warehouses.
All was well and the staff, sworn to secrecy, worked continually sorting the 45s out and meticulously catalogued, photographed each and every record. As vinyl started to dry up and CDs took over Wolfgang moved his attentions to US Radio Stations buying out complete back catalogues and record libraries to fuel his obsessive pastime everything being shipped back to Germany for storage in complete secrecy.
In 2003 at the grand age of 96 Wolfgang Vondoof passed away, he never married or had children and massive court cases ensued as distant relatives squabbled over his vast fortune and world wide business empire.
The nearest living relative was Avril De Witzbold, a distant second cousin who set about spending her newly gained fortune with glee. On examining company records, her legal representatives noticed that there was a yearly wage bill for "domestic staff" totalling nearly 600,000 Euro and yet no sign of them in the Castle.
Further investigations followed, bank accounts traced and the recipients were followed by private investigators to an entrance deep in the forest located on the edge of the Bavarian estate. This was their secret workplace. Police and specially trained anti-terrorist personnel were drafted in to organise a raid on the vast warehouse complex amid fear that Wolfgang had formed a secret army.
When the raid took place in 2008, the shocked staff were forced to the ground as armed officials burst into the warehouse complex. What they found was the Worlds largest record collection, stored catalogued and cross-referenced onto computer files.
It transpired that the library manager on hearing of his boss's death decided just to keep quiet and carry on working away at the collection. Such was the secrecy of the project and the illegal connections in the USA he thought it was best just to carry on keep drawing his salary, pay the employees and say nothing.
The whole event has been shrouded in secrecy, however it has been decided that the estimated 38,000,000 45s in the main collection will be returned to the USA as a definitive history of a "popular and commonly used" piece of American culture and history. It also represents a 60 year history of the American 45 rpm Record.
President Barack Obama will personally take delivery of the first consignment of 45s at the Smithsonian Institute for popular music in Memphis Tn. in the summer.
The remaining "Duplicate sets" that were rescued are to be sold at auction on line, as everything is already catalogued digitally and can be made available "on line" in lots of approximately 300,000 at monthly intervals. This is a double edge sword as the staff employed for all these years looking after the records, will now be involved in their sale and disposal.
On line auctions will be taking place later in the year, however demand world-wide is expected to be great so there is a general registration process and a registration fee of 50 euro will be payable to join in as part of the administration costs. This fee is refundable to anyone who actually purchases items from the collection (at whatever price) and is in place to stop time wasters from blocking up the auction process.
All money raised from the sale of the items is going to good causes in Germany and the USA.
To register follow this link to Die Welt. https://www.welt.de/webwelt/ and follow the instructions to the registration pages.
Alternatively, for those who don't speak German, you can send me a PM with your details and I will tell you what you need to do to take part in the auction in English to start you on the registration process (there are translated pages available once the registration page is reached). Please be quick as registration will end for the first auctions at Noon 01/04/2009-and then at monthly intervals starting on the first of each month No fee is payable until the site contacts you back and issues you with a bidders number.
I have already seen a preview list and every Shrine 45 is listed in Mint condition, there are several 25 & 50 count boxes of the rarer items available bids start at just
10 Euro. A great way to obtain those missing items for your collections
Hope you have as much fun as I have.
Morgen-Mantel.
Germany.