Page - 54 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 02/01

54 | Florian Heesch www.jrfm.eu 2016, 2/1, 49–69 recorded voice of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck: “The phonograph enables a man who has been resting in his grave for a long time to lift his voice once again and salute the present age.”17 Because Bismarck was still alive at the time, von Moltke’s com- ment was clearly a vision for the future, and, indeed, it was soon possible to hear recorded voices of absent (dead) bodies. Similarly, in his history of the vinyl record Richard Osborne argues that “sound recording promises immortality ... it is a form of cryogenics, preserving life in order to reanimate it at another time”.18 Ong’s state- ment on the presence of dead bodies in recordings of their voices clearly resonates with these observations. Finally, it was not the phonograph but the gramophone that won the competition between the two recording technologies. Its success was due in part to some tech- nological advantages but above all to Berliner’s strategy of commercialising his appa- ratus not for communication purposes, as Edison had in mind, but for entertainment, which included the recording and distribution of music. In the German context, the schlager genre profited heavily from the new technology. When the gramophone be- came increasingly popular in bourgeois homes in the late 1920s, some schlager even reflected that new popularity, for instance, “Ich hab zu Haus ein Grammophon” (“I’ve got a gramophone at home”), sung by Max Kuttner (1883–1953), which included the following chorus:19 Ich hab’ zu Haus’ ein Gra, ein Gra, ein Grammophon, das macht so schön Trara, Trara, Sie wissen schon. Man steckt die Nadel rein, gleich fängt es an zu schrei’n. Die größte Sensation, das ist mein Grammophon. I’ve got a gramophone at home, that nicely says trara, you know. As soon as you put the needle in it starts to scream. My gramophone is the greatest sensation. Like many other pieces from urban cabaret culture, “Ich hab zu Haus ein Grammo- phon” combines the depiction of new technology – a technology that is so new that its owner rather stammers its name – with erotic allusions. In this case, the phrase “Man steckt die Nadel rein” (“you put the needle in”) offers associations with phallic 17 “Der Phonograph ermöglicht, dass ein Mann, der schon lange im Grabe ruht, noch einmal seine Stimme erhebt und die Gegenwart begrüßt”, cited in Gauß 2013, 31, English translation F.H. 18 Osborne 2014, 22. 19 Kuttner, Max, Ich hab zu Haus ein Grammophon, Schlager Medaillons 4, Membran Music 2004, English translation F.H.