Phonographic Tones – Photographic Moments

Sound and Image Documents from German Prison Camps of World War I

Otto Stiehl

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Founded in 1915, the Royal Prussian Phonographic Commission documented the language and music of foreign soldiers held captive in German POW camps. With approximately one thousand original wax cylinders, Berlin’s Phonograph Archive in the Ethnological Museum is the most comprehensive of the historical collections. The sound documents consist exclusively of musical recordings.
Photographs of the prison camps in Wünsdorf and Zossen, Germany, from the Museum of European Cultures comprise another focus in this exhibition. Prisoners in these camps received special treatment by the Germans, who attempted to ‘re-educate’ them to join the German ranks. To this end, the photographs taken by one of the camps’ commanding officers Otto Stiehl (1860–1940) were also used as propaganda.