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SIM Research Colloquium: Reception Centres in Berlin, 1900–1945
Event date: 12/02/2026
Location: SIM seminar room, 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. (in German)
Carsten Schmidt and Jo Wilhelm Siebert (SIM) are presenting their current research project.
The project ‘Berlin Recording Studios 1900 to 1945 – Sites of the Phonographic Industry in Times of Global Crises’ aims to provide an overview and, in specific cases, to investigate the premises in Berlin where, for over 40 years, sound recordings were produced using purely mechanical methods with a funnel, and from 1926 onwards with electrical amplification and a microphone, and what these venues were like. Representative productions by various companies from around 20 recording studios spanning the period from 1900 to 1945 are to be identified, digitised and presented, together with any available information – data, texts and images from the specialist press, from records held by the State Archives, the Secret State Archives of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and the German Museum of Technology –. The two-year project began in June 2026 and is funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.
Carsten Schmidt, M.A., Research Fellow, is Head of the Library and the Musicological Documentation Department at the SIM. Dr Jo Wilhelm Siebert is a research assistant in the field of music theory and music history.
3.00–4.00 pm
Free
admission. The event is open to the public. No registration is required.
Access to the seminar room is via the entrance to the State Institute for Music Research. Link to OpenStreetMap
Image:
Polyphonwerke AG, Recording Studio I, concert hall of the State Academic College of Music in Berlin-Charlottenburg, 1927: the composer and conductor Pietro Mascagni during recordings with the Staatskapelle Berlin. Photo: Unknown, *Schallkiste*, July 1927, page 10.