The German Lost Art Foundation is funding the research project Towards Sonic Resocialization at the Zentrum für Kulturtechnik from 1.3.2024 to 28.2.2026. For the first time, the focus of the research is not on objects but on sound recordings. The Team is examining the collection of recordings of prisoners of war from the First World War in the Lautarchiv who were recruited for the armies of European powers in the colonies. These include 456 sound recordings of African prisoners in German camps.

The digitized recordings and the associated historical written documentation are to be shared with the Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire in Dakar, Senegal, as well as with other African archives in the future. In the course of this, the existing metadata of the sound archive will also be subject to a critical decolonizing onomastication.

Proactive exchange and cooperation with the respective source communities are particularly important to the project right from the start. Provenance research is also carried out on the places of origin of the colonial soldiers, and genealogical research is conducted on the descendants.

The project aims to create a model for the future handling of colonial heritage in sound archives. In the future, this will be done not only with recordings of speakers from the African continent but also with all colonial recordings in the Lautarchiv.

Team
Dr. Katarzyna Puzon
Dr. Alia Mossallam
Alina Januscheck (until 03.2025)
Michael Willenbücher
Charly Bischoff
Dr. Oliver Zauzig

Further information / Links
Projektvorstellung Deutsches Zentrum Kulturgutverluste
HZK Website Announcement
Forschungsinformationssystem der HU