Dr. Rainer E. Lotz (born 1937 in Hamburg) is a German economist, mechanical engineer and lecturer in political science. As an amateur music historian he participated in TV documentations and has authored numerous liner notes, monographs, and essays on subjects such as discography (he is editor of the German National Discography 1890-1960 <http://www.lotz-verlag.de/discography.html>), radio history, ragtime, and jazz. Part of his collection of over 60,000 shellac records was acquired by the Library of Congress in 2009.
Lotz conducts record auctions and is member in several international associations such as IASA/FIAT, IAJRC and ARSC. In 1998 he received the ARSC (Association of Recorded Sound Collections) Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his work in published recorded sound research.
After having worked in the Near East, Latin America, Asia and Africa he now lives retired in Bonn.
