People
Wilhelm Albert Doegen
Objects in the Database

DHM Recording T 90/478 – “Rede in der Nationalversammlung” Audio

DHM Recording T 98/28 – “3 Probeaufnahmen vor dem Schloß Bellevue” Audio

DHM Recording T 98/18 – “Gebetsruf der Muhammediner” Audio

DHM Recording T 90/412 – “Unterzeichnung des Friedensvertrages von Versailles” Audio

DHM Recording T 98/46 – “An das deutsche Volk” Audio

DHM Recording T 90/423 – “Aufruf an das Deutsche Volk” Audio

DHM Recording T 98/10 – With Camera and Record, Disc 6, Side A: “The Aerial Pageant at Hendon” Audio

DHM Recording T 98/10 – With Camera and Record, Disc 6, Side B: “The Aerial Pageant – Conversation” Audio

DHM Recording T 98/11 – With Camera and Record, Disc 10, Side A: “St. Paul’s Cathedral” Audio

DHM Recording T 98/11 – With Camera and Record, Disc 10, Side B: “St. Paul’s Cathedral – Conversation / The Houses of Parliament” Audio

DHM Recording T 98/12 – With Camera and Record, Disc 4, Side A: “The London Underground Railways – Conversation” Audio

DHM Recording T 98/12 – With Camera and Record, Disc 4, Side B: “Buying a Hat – Conversation” Audio

DHM Recording T 98/13 – With Camera and Record, Disc 9, Side A: “The Tower of London and Tower Bridge” Audio

DHM Recording T 98/13 – With Camera and Record, Disc 9, Side B: “The Tower of London and Tower Bridge – Conversation” Audio

DHM Recording T 90/401 – “Das neue Berlin” Audio

Lautarchiv Recording LA 1186 – “Polizeibericht 1. Teil” Audio

Lautarchiv Recording LA 1187 – “Polizeibericht 2. Teil” Audio

Lautarchiv Recording Aut 65 – “Eduard Sievers, Lesung” Audio

Lautarchiv Recording Aut 66 – “Eduard Sievers, Lesung” Audio

Lautarchiv Recording LA 566/1 – Siebs, Theodor: “A-Laute” Audio

Lautarchiv Recording LA 566/2 – Siebs, Theodor: “E-Laute” Audio

Wilhelm Doegen’s recordings in the Lautarchiv Series

Lautarchiv Recording LA 567/1 – Siebs, Theodor: “O-Laute” Audio

Lautarchiv Recording PK 1695 – “Lyrik – PK 2695/6” Audio

Lautarchiv Recording PK 1679/2 – “Das Künstlerische Sprechen / Eigenrede” Audio

Lautarchiv Recording LA 636 – Doegen, Wilhelm: “Zahlenreihen und Wörter…” Audio

Lautarchiv Recording LA 637 – Giese, Fritz: “Abstrakte akustische Zeichen…” Audio

Lautarchiv Recording LA 565 – Siebs, Theodor: “Die Bedeutung der Bühnenausspache…” Audio

Lautarchiv Recording LA 718/3 – “Wenker’sche Sätze” Audio

Doegens Auswahl englischer Gedichte. 2 Discs Series

Doegens Auswahl englischer Gedichte. Disc 1, Side A Audio

Doegens Auswahl englischer Gedichte. Disc 1, Side B Audio

Doegens Auswahl englischer Gedichte. Disc 2, Side A Audio

Doegens Auswahl englischer Gedichte. Disc 2, Side B Audio

Bericht über mein Wirken und Schaffen in der Preussischen Phonographischen Kommission Texts

Photograph of the “Doegen-Lauthalter” Images

Wilhelm Doegen inspects a copper mould of the recording of Hindenburg’s speech Images

Postcard showing Wilhelm Doegen in the Lautinstitute’s recording studio Images

Wilhelm Doegen recording the voices of English prisoners of war Images

Patent document no. 447 394 for the “Doegen-Lauthalter” Texts

Postcard: In the Lautinstitute’s recording studio at the Prussian State Library Images

A recording of Wilhelm Doegen is transferred to the oscillograph Images

Résumé, Wilhelm Doegen, 1910 Texts

Manuscript: “Zur Geschichte des Lautarchivs” Texts

Recording of the drum language of the Duala from Cameroon in the Lautarchiv (1) Images

Recording of the drum language of the Duala from Cameroon in the Lautarchiv (2) Images

List of Doegen’s publications and achievements Texts

Wilhelm Doegen’s tax return Texts

Inventory report of the Institut für Lautforschung Texts

Technical drawing of the “Doegen-Lauthalter” (blueprint) Images

Program sheet for Wilhelm Doegen’s lecture “Stimmen der Völker in Liedern” Texts

Patent certificate for the “Doegen-Lauthalter” Texts

Certificate of the registration of a trademark for the „Doegen-Lauthalter“ Texts

Katalog der Lautbibliothek Texts

Wilhelm Doegen having tea with English prisoners of war Images

Personal information form for Lautarchiv Recording LA 565 Texts

Personal information form for Lautarchiv Recording LA 566 Texts

Personal information form for Lautarchiv Recording LA 567 Texts

Personal information form for Lautarchiv Recording LA 636 Texts

Personal information form for Lautarchiv Recording LA 637 Texts

Personal information form for Lautarchiv Recording LA 731 Texts

Personal information form for Lautarchiv Recording LA 1186 Texts

Personal information form for Lautarchiv Recording LA 1187 Texts

Personal information form for Lautarchiv Recording PK 1679 Texts

Personal information form for Lautarchiv Recording PK 1695 Texts

Personal information form for Lautarchiv Recording Aut 65 Texts

Personal information form for Lautarchiv Recording Aut 66 Texts

Mit Kamera und Lautplatte durch England Texts

With Camera and Record, Disc 3, Side A: “Fleet Street” Audio

With Camera and Record, Disc 3, Side B: “Fleet Street – Conversation” Audio

Mit Kamera und Lautplatte durch England Series
Wilhelm Albert Doegen
Wilhelm Doegen was born in Berlin. He studied economics, law, history, languages, and phonetics at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Berlin (today Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), and in Oxford with the linguist and philologist Henry Sweet. After travels in France and England and a voluntary year in the military, he started teaching at secondary schools in Berlin in 1905. Focusing more and more on phonetics and prosody, Doegen published teaching materials for language learning and pronunciation. In 1909, he invented a recording device, the Doegen-Lautapparat, that earned him public recognition at the World’s Fair in Brussels the year after. It was in the same period that he conducted his first speech recordings.
During World War I, Doegen was part of a phonographic commission founded in 1915, the Königlich Preußische Phonographische Kommission. Under the supervision of Carl Stumpf, the commission visited prisoner-of-war camps and recorded more than a thousand speech samples and songs of the prisoners. When the commission was dissolved in 1920, its wax cylinders became part of the Phonogramm-Archiv. For the shellac records, a new sound department was founded at the Prussian State Library, and Doegen became its head. In the subsequent years, he extended the department’s collection, adding, among others, his recordings of German dialects based on Wenker sentences, a collection of voice portraits of famous people to complement Ludwig Darmstaedter’s set of autographs, and recordings of the voices of criminals. The sound department later became the Lautarchiv (“sound archive”) in Berlin.
Doegen was suspended from his position in 1930, suspected of having sold records for personal enrichment. Although he was later exonerated, his reputation was severely damaged, and he had to retire in 1933. After World War II, he returned to the Lautarchiv, now affiliated with the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität and renamed Institut für Lautforschung (“institute for sound research”). He remained a professor of English language and literature until 1951.
Manuscripts, photographs, letters, and recordings associated with Wilhelm Doegen can be found at the Lautarchiv, the German Historical Museum, and the German Federal Archives.
More recordings conducted by Wilhelm Doegen can be found online:
https://www.donalkearney.com/blog/the-doegen-project
noch zu übertragen (!)
Key Publications:
Doegen, Wilhelm. Doegens Unterrichtshefte für die selbständige Erlernung fremder Sprachen mit Hilfe der Lautschrift und der Sprechmaschine. Vol. 1: Englisch, No. 1-3. Berlin: Verlag von Otto Schwartz, 1909.Doegen, Wilhelm. Sprech- und Lehrproben. Ein Beitrag zur Methodik des neusprachlichen Unterrichts. Berlin: Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, 1913.Doegen, Wilhelm. Denkschrift über die Errichtung eines “Deutschen Lautamtes” in Berlin. Manuscript. Berlin: s.n., 1918.Doegen, Wilhelm. “Die Lautabteilung.” In: Fünfzehn Jahre Königliche und Staatsbibliothek. 253-259. Berlin: Preußische Staatsbibliothek, 1921.Doegen, Wilhelm. Kriegsgefangene Völker. Vol. 1: Der Kriegsgefangenen Haltung und Schicksal in Deutschland. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer (Ernst Vohsen), 1919.Doegen, Wilhelm. Unter fremden Völkern. Eine neue Völkerkunde. Berlin: Otto Stollberg, Verlag für Politik und Wirtschaft, 1925.Doegen, Wilhelm. Kulturkundliche Lautbücherei in Verbindung mit Lautplatten für Unterricht und Wissenschaft. Vol. 1: Auswahl englischer Prosa und Poesie. Berlin: Lautverlag, 1925.Doegen, Wilhelm. Kulturkundliche Lautbücherei in Verbindung mit Lautplatten für Unterricht und Wissenschaft. Vol. 2: Auswahl französischer Poesie und Prosa. Berlin: Lautverlag, 1928.- Doegen, Wilhelm, and W. Potter (eds.). Mit Kamera und Lautplatte durch England / With Camera and Record Throughout England. Berlin: Laut-Verlag, 1930.
- Doegen, Wilhelm. Jahrbuch des Lautwesens 1931, hrsg. in Verb. mit dem Internationalen Bunde zur Förderung des Lautwesens. Berlin: Lehner Vertriebsges. m. b. H., 1930.
Sources:
https://esf.uni-osnabrueck.de/index.php/module-styles/d/182-doegen-wilhelm
https://www.lautarchiv.hu-berlin.de/einfuehrung/chronologie/
Compiled by HE | Picture: © Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin
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