On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Thomas Alva Edison’s invention of the phonograph, Dr. Hans-Werner Steinhausen in the presence of the Federal President Walter Scheel gives on 27 April 1977 a speech entitled: 100 years of phonography.

In the 21-minute speech, Steinhausen draws a wide arc from the actual founder of modern phonography Emil Berliner, the sense of technology, the special nature of music as an art form with regard to the phonographic industry, acoustics and quadraphony to an outlook on visual media.

About Dr. Hans-Werner Streinhausen ^[1]
Dr. Steinhausen, born in Berlin, is one of the most active figures in the recording industry. During his 21 years with DGG the gramophone record has become to him a communication medium committed primarily to fulfilling its musical function and to technical development. He grew up in a musical family – his mother was a pianist – and at first he expressed the wish to become a practising musician himself. But as he grew older his hobby, audio-electronics, grew into an interest in science. Steinhausen decided to attend the Berlin Technical University, graduating as an engineer in 1930. After the war he became technical head of Telefunken in Hanover and in 1950 took over all Deutsche Grammophon development work in Hanover.

Dr. Steinhausen, a lover of and an expert in music, has played a decisive role in the post-war story of Deutsche Grammophon, with his constant insistence that artistic achievements must be reproduced faithfully during the technical transformation process. The career of the confidential clerk (1953), factory director (1957) and managing director (1958) has covered vitally important years in the development of the plastic record as well as the introduction of the long playing and stereophonic record. Dr. Steinhausen, a pioneer of modern production methods, has always sought to avoid the danger of too much stress being placed on technical questions. Throughout his career his aim has always been to reconcile Art and Technology. The expression “Grammophon Quality” has been a constant spur. He has interpreted the “secret of quality” as “responsibility towards the artistic concept, and method and care in its technical realisation.” He has gained particular recognition for his works towards the universal standardisation of stereo technology. Dr. Steinhausen maintains a frankly critical attitude towards the development and expansion of the Philips/Grammophon group into associated fields (film, television, video, music publishing). He believes in the future of the gramophone record “because hardly any other medium has grown so organically and slowly.  There is no apparent or imaginable reason to doubt the long life of the gramophone record.”