Motorcycle collector Karl-Heinz Rehkopf PS.Speicher

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Motorcycle collector Karl-Heinz Rehkopf PS.Speicher
Siemer

Motorcycle collector Karl-Heinz Rehkopf PS.Speicher

Motorcycle collector Karl-Heinz Rehkopf PS.Speicher

Motorcycle collector Karl-Heinz Rehkopf PS.Speicher

Motorcycle collector Karl-Heinz Rehkopf PS.Speicher

16 pictures

Motorcycle collector Karl-Heinz Rehkopf PS.Speicher
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Are there any wishes left unanswered? “Oh yes, I can think of a place for the rarest BMW, the R 39.”

Motorcycle collector Karl-Heinz Rehkopf PS.Speicher
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Campsite, disco, milk bar, Einbeck shopping street – scenes like this open up access and create connections.

Motorcycle collector Karl-Heinz Rehkopf PS.Speicher
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… First an eagle. Then a Max, later a beautiful BMW.

Motorcycle collector Karl-Heinz Rehkopf PS.Speicher
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in the early 70s, the now 78-year-old bought what he dreamed of as a young guy …

Motorcycle collector Karl-Heinz Rehkopf PS.Speicher
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At the age of 16, the high school student also toiled in the clay pits of his hometown for a small pre-war Victoria.

Motorcycle collector Karl-Heinz Rehkopf PS.Speicher
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Karl-Heinz Rehkopf never lost sight of the family context. And he took his 40 or 50 years.

Motorcycle collector Karl-Heinz Rehkopf PS.Speicher
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It’s done, his treasures have found the most beautiful home imaginable.

Motorcycle collector Karl-Heinz Rehkopf PS.Speicher
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Today almost every child in Einbeck knows him.

Motorcycle collector Karl-Heinz Rehkopf PS.Speicher
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… and Karl-Heinz Rehkopf was able to expand his collection to over 1000 mostly German two- to four-wheelers under the motto “I’m happy about everyone who doesn’t know me”.

Motorcycle collector Karl-Heinz Rehkopf PS.Speicher
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His family has lived on the outskirts of Einbeck for over two decades, …

Motorcycle collector Karl-Heinz Rehkopf PS.Speicher
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Who will say a, need to say b as well. Anyone who builds a museum is in the spotlight. “In the interim”.

Motorcycle collector Karl-Heinz Rehkopf PS.Speicher
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Standstill? Rehkopf and his comrades-in-arms bravely look ahead.

Motorcycle collector Karl-Heinz Rehkopf PS.Speicher
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A favorite place: upstairs, the big ones marvel at a triumph, downstairs the little ones can crawl through.

Motorcycle collector Karl-Heinz Rehkopf PS.Speicher
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Every piece a discovery: Rehkopf admires the Zundapp from the Sturm und Drang era of the German moped.

Motorcycle collector Karl-Heinz Rehkopf PS.Speicher
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The famous PS.Speicher in Einbeck thrives on a motorcycle collection that Karl-Heinz Rehkopf built up in great calm over five decades.

Motorcycle collector Karl-Heinz Rehkopf PS.Speicher
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At around 80 interactive stations, visitors can press buttons, open drawers, pull levers or check their knowledge.

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Motorcycle collector Karl-Heinz Rehkopf PS.Speicher

Portrait of motorcycle collector Karl-Heinz Rehkopf
The famous PS memory

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The famous PS.Speicher in Einbeck thrives on a motorcycle collection that Karl-Heinz Rehkopf built up in great calm over five decades. Now she has somehow gone to donate, his peace.

Fred Siemer

02/05/2015

Who will say a, need to say b as well. Anyone who builds a museum is in the spotlight. “Temporary”, hopes Karl-Heinz Rehkopf, but he cannot deny that there are circumstances surrounding this project that he has initiated that are more pleasant to him. Those about meeting so many enthusiastic people in the exhibition. The PS.Speicher, housed in the former granary near downtown Einbeck, has welcomed around 30,000 visitors since it opened at the end of July 2014. Exciting months?

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The famous PS memory

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Karl-Heinz Rehkopf: “What does months mean? Since we founded the Kornhaus Foundation in 2009 and decided to move into this warehouse, the excitement has persisted. A museum, or more correctly: a PS.Speicher according to our ideas, in a historical monument, with real prospects for the future – that was a multi-layered project. You don’t want to embarrass yourself, we leave that to others with their airports and philharmonic orchestras. No, seriously: Fortunately, we worked with a proper safety buffer right from the start. However, it was completely used up at the opening. “

“I’m happy for everyone who doesn’t know me”

His family has lived on the outskirts of Einbeck for over two decades, and Karl-Heinz Rehkopf was able to expand his collection to over 1000 mostly German two- to four-wheelers under the motto “I’m happy about everyone who doesn’t know me”. Almost in secret. Very, very few people knew his ambitions. Past. Today almost every child in Einbeck knows him.

Karl-Heinz Rehkopf: “Yes, and since then I’ve had to do a lot of unfamiliar things. Give interviews, for example. Well, I see my motorcycles as something that, in its entirety, is a technical cultural asset. I wanted it to be preserved in this form and opened to the public as a museum after my death. But at some point some very friendly people made it clear to me that it would be best to take care of it myself, that is, while still alive. ”

Rehkopf sits at a corner table in the Genusswerkstatt, the restaurant in the PS.Speicher, and smiles. It’s done, his treasures have found the most beautiful home imaginable. Opposite him Gabriele Rehkopf-Adt, his wife. One of those very friendly people who persuaded him back then. She smiles back. Half an hour ago, the two of them opened Einbeck’s first electric filling station on the museum area and drove up to the battery-powered Detroit Electric from 1916 in proper style. The PS.Speicher is their joint project and the project of the non-profit Kornhaus cultural foundation they founded. Both of them have been indulging in the collecting hobby for a long time. The secret? Karl-Heinz Rehkopf never lost sight of the family connection. And he took his 40 or 50 years.

Karl-Heinz Rehkopf: “In this way I was also able to solve the limitation factors of space and financial resources. But incidentally, shared joy can also mean that I go to a picture gallery with my wife – she is an art historian – on a trip in the morning and she accompanies me to the motorcycle or car museum in the afternoon. “

Motorcycle collector Karl-Heinz Rehkopf PS.Speicher

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Adventure exhibition of historical bicycles, motorcycles and automobiles

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“I really wanted to be an engineer”

The joy of the other becomes your own. That’s how it is. But what was left to do with her? Karl-Heinz Rehkopf was only available as a motorcycle fool. At the age of 16, the high school student also toiled in the clay pits of his hometown for a small pre-war Victoria. That wasn’t enough, he continued to toil, because there was more to it than driving. Whoever wanted to impress the girls needed a Max, a Regina. A Triumph Cornett wasn’t bad either. But those who toil a lot can lose touch here and there.

Karl-Heinz Rehkopf: “I really wanted to be an engineer, but my teacher claimed that I could do arithmetic, but real mathematics was’ not for me with these grades”. So I studied business administration. When my father died early, I had to work on the side again in order to continue my studies – I opened a grocery store with my wife. A real corner shop. Then the motorcycle hobby had a break. “

Almost all gasoline calls were over the phone

Shortly afterwards, however, in the early 70s, the now 78-year-old bought what he had dreamed of as a young guy. First an eagle. Then a Max, later a beautiful BMW. What he was able to find and what then – it is hard to believe today – was simply cheap. Everyone wanted hot goods from Japan, Italy, England. Except Karl-Heinz Rehkopf, and at some point a friend stood in his garage and said he had built up a real small collection there. Oh my godness.

Karl-Heinz Rehkopf: “Well, if that is the case, I thought to myself, then this brand is still missing the 150 and the 250 a 250. Soon I not only had a wonderful Triumph series together, but was also able to experience that such series from other brands also look pretty. From NSU, from DKW, from Victoria. That didn’t let me go. I subscribed to all the magazines, and when they got in the mail, the secretary had to show them to me immediately. It doesn’t matter whether I was in a meeting or not. “

The small mom and pop shop has developed into an important retail chain over the past 50 years, which is still family-owned. The company during the week, the hobby at the weekend: Karl-Heinz Rehkopf always had a lot on his mind. And because time was short, he conducted almost all gasoline conversations on the phone – conquering a Hoffmann Gouverneur, looking for a ’98 Sachs or even a Maico Taifun. Thanks to increasing experience, he continued to refine his conversation skills, and so he succeeded in what he is most amazed at: that when buying a phone, on balance, he got more positive than negative surprises.

Karl-Heinz Rehkopf: “This is how I acquired most of my motorcycle collection. Not a lie. I then researched parts in the relevant markets. I always had a small mini moped with me with a sack truck as a trailer. On top of it a cardboard box, in which I then packed parts of what I was missing. Or what I just found exciting. When the other collectors asked in the beer tent in the evening what they already had, I mumbled about the DKW RT 125, NSU Fox or Maxi. ‘Keep it up’, they grinned, ‘just courage’, and left me alone. Splendid.”

Camping site, disco, milk bar, Einbeck shopping street

The Rehkopf collector soon outgrown the post-war era, and on a tour of the PS.Speicher he also shows why: out of sheer pleasure and deep curiosity. Here he is fascinated by a special brake, there a rare carburetor. And no matter whether everyday companions like 100s Victoria, Triumph Boss or precious items like Munch and Mars – Rehkopf knows a story about all of them. It is thanks to this joy in the whole that his collection is unique and does not rest on rarities. The history of the German motorcycle was largely written by Lux, Fox and RT, by Florett, Schwalbe and Lambretta. They really carried the wheels that moved the people. PS.Speicher is also committed to this motto – and relies heavily on the whole family. Not just for motorcycle enthusiasts.

Karl-Heinz Rehkopf: “PS.Speicher cannot live on them alone. So we have to offer very, very many points of contact, and for that matter, a Foil or a Vespa with their enormous sympathy value can at least as much as a technically exciting Mars. This is exactly why the small cars that we can show here from the world-famous Story collection are so important. “

Campsite, disco, milk bar, Einbeck shopping street – scenes like this open up access and create connections. At around 80 interactive stations, visitors can press buttons, open drawers, pull levers or check their knowledge. Motorcycles hang on the wall, stuck in transport boxes. The whole memory is a huge colorful educational game.

Karl-Heinz Rehkopf: “That was and is also for us doers. We have played. Anyone who plays becomes relaxed, sets creativity free, discovers freedom in which new solutions can flourish. I appreciate this freedom in the company, and of course a PS. Speicher really needs it. “

PS. Speicher can look completely different tomorrow

Sometimes the game becomes serious. When a collection grows into a cultural asset. When the ideas of an imaginatively designed exhibition visibly delight its visitors. When the milk bar sells 180 liters of milkshake every Saturday and will soon open on Sundays too. “You see: you have to play.” Karl-Heinz Rehkopf laughs again. A little subtle, as if he was up to a lot more. In fact, the PS.Speicher is not supposed to be a museum that is said to have been there four years ago. Checked off. No, the PS memory can look completely different tomorrow. Or the day after tomorrow.

Karl-Heinz Rehkopf: “This year everything will stay as it is for the time being. Not everyone was there yet! But the construction of a 63-room hotel is now starting outside. And at the beginning of 2015 we can take over another building on the site. Small cars come in there, and then we have space for special motorcycle exhibitions. “

Rarely has a father understated so much

The fact is that the currently 4100 m² exhibition space can only present a good quarter of the collection. Hundreds of motorcycles are lined up in a depot, a lavishly restored former factory, waiting to be used. Karl-Heinz Rehkopf greets his foreman in the workshop, talks shop every day about the Detroit’s batteries, and lets him show the freshly painted sheet metal parts of a dismantled car. He also test-driven every restored vehicle. Usually shorter rather than longer, but a look at the upper floors proves that many hours must have passed. There they are, the ranks. From Adler to Zundapp, from motorized bicycles to heavy teams. Actually unbelievable.

Karl-Heinz Rehkopf: “My father often groaned: ‘This boy, either he doesn’t do anything or he does it 250 percent”. Maybe he was right. “

Seldom has a father understated so much; in any case, the question arises as to whether there are still wishes left unfulfilled in view of this excessive abundance.

Karl-Heinz Rehkopf: “Oh yes, I can think of a place for the rarest BMW, the R 39.”

And then? Would it be over then? A bit of severity is mixed in with Karl-Heinz Rehkopf’s laughter:

Karl-Heinz Rehkopf: “Have you never spoken to a collector?”

Yes, but…

Contact

PS.Speicher Tiedexer Tor 3, 37574 Einbeck
Opening times: Wednesday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (Tuesday: events for registered groups / school classes)
www.ps-speicher.de

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