Category: Let's talk
I was flicking through the paper the other day when I saw an article entitled 'voices of history' which I thought looked interesting: it certainly was. It turns ou that the British Library have compiled a CD of some of the most famous pieces of audio, either broacdcast or simply recorded, to be collected since recording was possible. It has all your usuals, such as hitler, Lennin, and of course King Edward VIII's abdication broadcast in 1936, but those don't tell half the story. What's most amazing is how far back they've been able to go: the earliest clip they have is Florrence Nightingale speaking in 1878! They also have prime mininster Gladstone speaking some time in the 1880's, asquith on the parliamentary reforms in 1909 and David Lloyd George on the first world war. I had no idea that sound recordings from these early days had been preserved, and I must say I find it pretty amazing.
wow I didn't think they could preserve that far back neither. Thats pretty facinating!
my goodness mind you I have a tape of Enzo Ferrai giving a rare interview {Signore Ferrari only did a few interviews and all in Italian}
it's quite crackily but that just adds to the atmosphere.smile
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When you think of what these recordings must be worth, but I imagine listening to hitler must still be very disturbing.
Absolutely I'm sure listening to Hitler, on the occasions I've needed to, is always a somewhat frightening experience. well actually, perhaps not frightening, but one really has an appreciation of the momentous legacy he had on the history of the world, and indeed the effect he will probably always have. it was terrible yes, but momentous.
Absolutely... I like that phrase, legacy on history. That is what I miss most about living in Europe, incidentally. Living in the shadow of history, as it were. Hitler... sometimes I think the man must sound even more scary if you don't understand what he is saying, and just hear his voice, and the animation in it.
Now that would be a cool CD to hear. I have quite a collection of world war II material, about 1.5 GB worth here, but very little of anything before 1930. I think the most anoying voice I have heard has got to be Freud. He may have been a great thinker, but he would have made an awfull singer. Anyway, if u r interested, here is a page that has a few historic sound bytes on it. U will need either the real player, or real alternative to listen to them though.http://www.sinberg.com/~history/main.html
Holy crap! I didn't know they stored things away in audio form from that long ago. Maybe they've been re-done in some form over the years so that they'd still have them today, but who knows.
Yes, apparently the soundbites taken from Florrence Nightingale have only just been discovered on a Victorian Wax cylinder. I agree about Hitler, it's almost more scary if you can't understand what he's saying. sometimes I can, but more often than not I can't. Still, that was probably because of the undoubted oratory talent of the man.
Do you need to speak German to understand Hitler's true intentions I'd of thought the truth in his rantings would be obvious to a complete novice.It's clear to me he's spouting complete and utter hatred, mindless conformity, and German dominance over ze entire vorld!.
Shit! I need to lie down.
There are subtleties in Hitler's oratory that you can't pick up unless you can understand German spoken by an austrian, and unfortunately, if you were to say in a history exam that you don't need to know what Hitler actually said because the tone of his rantings made it blindingly obvious, you wouldn't get many marks I'm afraid.
Just an observation: I actually do speak German, but when I think of Hitler, what stands out in my mind when thinking about his speeches that I have seen and heard is not any particular set of content, but rather an image of the delivery, namely his affect. This is very strange as I am a highly verbal person. Make of this what you may, I don't know where and how it fits :-).
Wow! Well, if you want to hear the earliest recording ever made, there's a recording of a person who used a dictorphone from the late 1800s to record himself and use the playback like a talking clock. It was done in led, and is still playable today. It's on the net somewhere, I'll have to look it up.
Yes, Hitler's oratory skills were undoubtedly phenomenal, if one sets aside the content of his speeches. His method of delivery was awesome and it is not hard to see why in 1932, the german nation fell at his feet in the elections of that year.
They really had no other choice the opposition was laughable and to be humiliated in war was a personal affront to the German people,plus in times of economic or personal hardship, people will invariably gravitate towards a strong leader its happened repeatedly throught history.
Goblin they did have a choice of course they did, and this is reflected by the fact that in March 1932, the Nazis gained 230 seats in the REichstag. Then in November, this proportion decreased to 196 at the second election of that year. Hitler lost the presidential election as well, when Hindenburg was re-elected. So it certainly wasn't one-sided, and the whole reason why the enabling law was necessary was because the nazis were a minority government.