Lautarchiv

The Royal Prussian Phonographic Commission was established by the Prussian Ministry of Culture to record the speech and music of soldiers interned in German prisoner-of-war camps during the First World War.

The collection PK 1 to PK 1650 was compiled between 1915 and 1918 in 33 German prisoner-of-war camps. The designation PK stands for Phonographic Commission. The Commission’s aim was to document the languages and music of ‘all the peoples of the world’.

The collection AUT 0 to AUT 74 was compiled between 1917 and 1925 and was originally entitled ‘Voices of Famous Personalities’. It was established as a collection of voice portraits at the Prussian State Library, where it was intended to complement Ludwig Darmstaedter’s collection of autographs with audio recordings. The call number AUT stands for ‘Autophon’.

Wilhelm Doegen compiled the collection together with the chemist and historian of science Ludwig Darmstaedter. Only male voices from the worlds of politics, science and culture were included.

The dialect collection LA 1 to LA 2059 comprises mainly recordings of German language variants, but also includes recordings of other languages.

The audio recordings in this collection were made between 1920 and 1944. The aim of the collection was to supplement the written surveys of the German Language Atlas, which had been compiled at Philipps University of Marburg since the late 19th century, with audio recordings. The collection was created as a joint project between Wilhelm Doegen and the Marburg-based Germanist Ferdinand Wrede. Historically, the collection was titled ‘Deutsche Mundarten’ (German Dialects).

The call number LA stands for ‘Lautabteilung’ (Phonetics Department) – it was under this name that what is now the Lautarchiv was formally established as an institution at the Prussian State Library in 1920.

During the Berlin Police Exhibition in 1926, Wilhelm Doegen recorded audio samples from inmates in Berlin prisons. These recordings form a separate collection within the dialect collection. They are catalogued under the reference numbers LA 709 to LA 731.

The recordings were made in the context of contemporary research into physiognomy and characterology. This research was based on the assumption that supposedly ‘criminal’ traits might be discernible from the voice.

Due to the circumstances in which they were made, as well as the power dynamics between those being recorded, the researchers involved and the police authorities, the recordings are now regarded as sensitive material.

This sub-collection comprises around 500 coated records and some 200 gelatine discs. It has so far been catalogued only to a limited extent and represents an important focus for future research.

The circumstances surrounding the creation of the coated records and their content remain largely unknown. No historical documentation relating to this collection has survived. Due to their poor state of preservation, the records cannot currently be played. Non-contact digitisation methods may be considered in the future.

Some of the gelatine discs are listed under the reference numbers GA 1 to GA 175 in a historical inventory book. This documents recordings associated with the dialect recordings made between 1935 and 1940. In addition, recordings from other linguistic contexts have also been preserved, including spokespersons from Togo and Haiti.

This sub-collection comprises 312 audio tapes from the GDR era. The tapes have been digitised; the digitised recordings can be listened to at the Lautarchiv upon registration.

In terms of content, this is a very diverse collection, which has so far only been catalogued at a basic level. Currently, the only details documented are a sequential numbering system, the labels on the tape boxes and reels, the reel diameters, and further information on the tape format and manufacturer. A tabular overview can be provided on request.

For conservation reasons, the original tapes cannot be played back; however, individual copies can be viewed at the Lautarchiv.

Animal sounds can also be found on some of the shellac discs in the sound archive. In 1925, Wilhelm Doegen recorded the sounds of elephants, sea lions, bears, tigers and lions at the Krone Circus in Berlin. Two years later, further recordings were made at Dresden Zoo, including those of hyenas, tigers and monkeys. They were catalogued under the Lautarchiv’s historical classification system by the LA Group.

The animal sound recordings do not constitute a separate sub-collection of the Sound Archive. They should not be confused with the Animal Sound Archive, which was founded in 1951 by Günter Tembrock at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and has been part of the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin since 1995.

The ‘Lautbibliothek’ is a series of publications produced between 1926 and 1944 by the Phonetics Department at the Prussian State Library and, from 1934 onwards, by the Institute for Phonetic Research at the University of Berlin. The collection comprises around 150 issues.

The publications primarily contain phonetic transcriptions and translations of language and dialect recordings from the Sound Archive. They were produced in connection with linguistic research into the recordings from the First World War, as well as the dialect recordings of the 1920s and 1930s.

The Sound Library should not be confused with the Lautarchiv’s reference library. The booklets can be consulted at the Lautarchiv. 

The collection comprises around 120 historical photographs relating to the sound archive. The photographs have not yet been systematically catalogued or indexed. No historical inventory has survived. Digital copies have been produced on an ad hoc basis, for example for exhibitions and publications.

With the exception of a few individual photographs, the collection is not currently listed in the online database and cannot be searched. For specific enquiries, please contact us by email.