95-minute audio document, compiled by Rainer Maillard in 2023.

This is derived from historic tape recordings of five discussions that took place between management, employees and retirees of Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft between 1956 and 1957.  The focus of the discussions was the history of the company, and represents a fascinating piece of cultural and social history.

 

Background and Chronology
We do not know the precise reasons for why these discussions took place and were recorded.  However, we do know that Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft had lost almost all of its documents and records during the Second World War, both at the administrative offices in Berlin and at the factory in Hanover. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume this prompted the idea of asking active and former employees in Hanover to share their memories, in order to rebuild at least some sense of what was happening in the company in the early days leading up to WWII.

The fact that these conversations and recordings took place in early 1956 can be explained by the fact that management’s move from Hanover to Hamburg, planned for April 1956, was fast approaching.  It was the perfect time to get this oral history “on the record”.

Management began issuing invitations to the staff on January 6th 1956.  Sessions were to take place on five evenings at 6 p.m., on Fridays in the factory canteen in Podbielskistrasse.  Snacks and drinks were served.  The discussions were led alternately by the managing directors Dr. Walter Betcke and Dr. Hans-Werner Steinhausen.  Each evening a particular period of time in the company’s history was discussed, in chronological order. 

 

The Recording of the Talks

The DGG recording department was responsible for recording the discussion. The sound engineers (Gerhard Henjes and Ernst Kwoll) distributed microphones around the tables and mixed the conversations with a mixer in the next room. This allowed the participants to remain relaxed at their seats and take part in the conversation as the mood took them. The total playing time of the 22 tapes is 6 ½ hours. Recordings were made on AEG magnetophones with 1/4 inch track width, speed 76cm per second, in mono.

The archived tapes are copies, not the original tapes.. Why the original tapes were not archived is unknown, and they are assumed to be lost.  There are edits in these archived tape copies in at least three places.

 

The Transcript

After the recordings were completed, a transcript was made with carbon paper, resulting in several copies. Clearly the intention at the time was for the transcript to be a verbatim, word-for-word document, but in fact there are various cuts and rewordings in this written record.  The transcript does not document who is speaking.

 

The "lost" Second Round of Talks

Neither tapes nor transcripts exist of the second round of talks on January 20, 1956. The reason for the loss is unknown. In order not to ignore the period under discussion at this session, a small re-recording was made 21 months later.

 

Previous Use and Reference to these Talks

Excerpts from the transcription of the participants' talks can be found in the following publications:

• Edwin Hein: 65 Jahre Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft. 1898-1963, Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft (ed.), Hamburg: 1963.
• 100 Jahre Schallplatte: von Hannover in die Welt: Beiträge und Katalog zur Ausstellung vom 29. September 1987 bis 10. Januar 1988 im Historischen Museum Am Hohen Ufer, Hannover.
• Heinz R. Niemann: Ein Name und die Vielstimmigkeit, 1895-1995 HUNDERT JAHRE POLYPHON, Polyphon Film & Fernsehgesellschaft mbH, Hamburg, Hamburg 1995
• Sophie Fetthauer: Deutsche Grammophon - Geschichte eines Schallplattenunternehmens im "Dritten Reich", Hamburg 2000

All of these publications cite only the transcripts; the tapes themselves have not yet been used as a direct source.

 

The Compilation

In 2019, an 88-minute compilation was made from the 6 1/2 hours of conversations on tape and played at the Emil Berliner Studios. A revision (95 minutes) was made in 2023.

This compilation covers all topics covered in the interviews and discussions.  Slips of the tongue, repetitions, subordinate clauses and excessively long pauses for thought were shortened or cut out.  Only some of Walter Buhre's longer technical descriptions in the second round of talks were rearranged to make the content easier to understand.

 

The participants

Mr. Appel (worker)

Adolf Birth (worker)

Dr. Walter Betcke (legal advisor, board member and Managing Director from 1927 at DGG)

Mr. Birkstrup (worker)

Robert Blanke (authorized signatory) with DGG from 1907

Walter Buhre (sound engineer) with DGG from 1922

Mr. Daukstrum (worker)

Mr. Fenger (worker)

Mr. Fritz (worker)

Ernst Kwoll (engineer in the recording department) with DGG from 1949

Dietrich Moormann (worker) already with DGG before 1914

Ernst Roediger (management) with DGG from the 1920s

Alexander Schaaf (engineer) worked for Siemens and DGG from 1938

Hans-Werner Steinhausen (management) with DGG from 1950

Theodor Söffker (electroplating) with DGG from 1900

Mr. Spitter (worker)

Mr. Thiery (worker)

Mr. Wehrmann (press operator) with DGG from 1902

Hans Wolter (commercial clerk) with DGG from 1903

And some other - as yet unidentified - employees

(The spelling of some names may be different)

 

Breakdown of Audio Recording:

 

1890-1918 (1st round of talks: January 6, 1956)  

00:00 Welcome by Dr. Walter Betcke

00:24 First pressing trials 1870-1898

01:58 Mr. Söffker reports on his hiring on 30.3.1900

02:13 Mr. Hawd (Gramophone Company)

03:24 Cow hair in the record

04:11 Zinc etching

05:53 Mr. Wehrmann reports on his work from 1902

06:34 Labels

07:01 Mr. Wolter in the warehouse since 1903

08:34 Shipping records

08:48 DG as an English company

08:57 Financing by English banks

09:16 Factories abroad

10:09 About Joseph Berliner

11:08 Introduction of vacation days in Hanover by Joseph Berliner

12:52 Joseph Berliner leaving the DGG

13:23 Pricing question, print runs & record prices

15:57 Best selling records

17:10 Otto Reuter

17:39 Record shipments to Japan and China

18:07 Recording expedition to Belgium

18:40 Amplified sound: gramophone with three horns

19:10 Mr. Roediger and Mr. Wolter on the Auxetophone

20:56 Mr. Roediger on the influence of radio

21:33 Mr. Betcke on Leo B. Cohn (Leo B. Curth)

22:35 Nikitsch records from the year 1913

23:15 Mr. Wehrmann about the outbreak of World War I

 

1918-1930 (2nd round, catch-up date: September 4, 1957)

24:37 Welcome by Ernst Kwoll

25:06 Mr. Blanke on the 1918 revolution

26:26 Occupation of the Rhineland

26:52 Hyperinflation

27:05 Record prices during the inflation

27:45 Christmas business 1923

28:23 Classical artists 

28:50 Pop & dance music 

29:22 Father-mother system from 1922

29:34 New composition of shellac records

30:14 Wax casting process until 1922

30:53 Silver plating 1924 Dr. Hagemann

32:44 Number of hand presses per hour

33:06 Walter Buhre reports on the work on the manual and automatic presses

34:07 Background noise - About the cutting sapphires

35:08 Recording waxes

36:04 Mr. Buhre on the development of the electric recording process

36:41 Employment of Mr. Buhre in 1922

36:56 The first electrical recordings 1924

39:01 1927 Apparatus from Brunswick by general director Bruno Borchardt

39:34 About electric cutter heads

40:02 About electric pickups 1927

40:52 Playback with loudspeakers

41:30 Walter Buhre in Japan

42:57 Sales in Japan help DGG

43:47 High dynamics in recordings

44:52 About the limiters for contract pressings after the war

45:36 Mr. Wolter on delivery times

45:56 Fast delivery to Copenhagen

 

1930-1939 (3rd round of talks: February 3, 1956) 

47:24 About the economic & financial crisis

49:48 About unemployment

50:27 Hiring National Socialists

54:59 About the Jewish employees in Berlin in 1933

56:39 About Obmann Pinkes in Berlin

57:39 Chief narcissist Felske

59:01 About Chairman Schindler in Hanover

1:00:04 Boycott on April 1, 1933

1:00:48 Flight of the Borchardt family on March 31, 1933

1:02:48 Liquidation of DGG AG/ foundation of DGG GmbH with Telefunken

1:06:03 Upswing after new foundation

1:06:55 DGG's economic problems between 1931 and 1937

1:12:25 Gestapo in the house

1:14:13 Destruction of matrices

1:15:03 Max Hansen

 

1939-1955 (4th round of talks: February 17, 1956) 

1:17:38 Beginning of the war

1:18:49 Shellac delivery via Russia after the outbreak of war

1:19:39 Attack on the factory in 1943

1:20:13 Air-raid shelter for Russian forced laborers

1:20:51 Death of Mrs. Söffker and Mrs. Emrich

1:22:01 Emergency work 1944-1945 

1:23:00 Condition in May 1945

1:23:35 Measures in view of the imminent division of Germany

1:23:56 Evacuation of the matrices

1:25:12 Capitulation & invasion

1:27:03 House searches by the Americans

1:29:28 English soldiers (HMV) take a look at the factory

1:30:12 Steinhausen on technical development since 1948

1:31:04 Steinhausen on the introduction of the vinyl LP & single

 

Final session: (March 3, 1956)

1:33:51 Closing words