Assuming his drives are functioning, what about sending your Greaseweasel/Kryoflux to Germany instead? It would only be a temporary loan to image the disks, then he can send it back.
Actually, depending on the track and sector layout and encoding (MFM/FM/etc), your German colleague may be able to hook up his (I'm assuming) functional 8" inch drive to a standard PC and use imaging software on the PC.