HANNOVER BERLINERS:
    Other German Berliners.
    The Berliners of Hannover 1720 - 1997".

My copy of the comprehensive biography of Emile Berliner, "Emile Berliner, Maker of the Microphone", noted on the previous page, has these annotations in it; I think they are rather interesting:

[Inside front cover notes (q.v.).  Slightly annotated.  Pp. 325-328, 329-332, 341-344(index), 353(index)-(+3 blank) uncut (cut by me).]

Other German Berliners

Ca. 1988, I had the pleasure of seeing a notable display about another Berliner (who turns out to have been Emile's brother, Joseph) in the Hanover city museum; he was a leading civic light before WWII and his daughter, Clara, was lost at the Theresienstadt camp in the Holocaust; Cora, the daughter of one of Emile's other brothers, Manfred, who had her Ph.D. and was an economics professor, was a heroine of the Holocaust, although eventually also lost.  I wrote to the museum for more background.  If you happen to be in Hanover, the museum is the Historischen Museum Am Hohen Ufer (the Historical Museum on the Upper Bank) at Pferdestrasse 6 and well-worth visiting.  Well, they sent me (Jul 97) a reprint of the cover and pages 76 through 81 of the "100 Jahre Schallplatte - Von Hannover in die Welt, Beiträge und Katalog zur Ausstellung vom 29.September bis 10.Januar 1988 im Historischen Museum am Hohen Ufer, Hannover", covering the Berliner family (remember - it's NOT mine)!  See a fine translation on a separate page.  There is also more information about Emile's other ventures with his brothers (they also founded what is today's Kabelmetal while they were at it) on that page.

There is a Realschule (junior high school) in Stoecken, a suburb of Hanover, which was renamed for Emile, the Emil-Berliner-Schule and Polygram opened Das Emil Berliner Haus (see below) on Emil-Berliner-Strasse (Street).

Grandson Oliver, in his afore-mentioned letter to me of 06 May 1992, also wrote that the family gives The Maker of the Microphone Award annually and that he, himself, received the Golden Gramophone and the Grammy medals on behalf of Emile.  Medals presented to Emile were in the possession of a cousin (now deceased); some may have gone to the Smithsonian and the Library of Congress and some may have been passed down in the family.

Oliver advised (01 Apr 98) that Polygram opened an Emil Berliner Haus right next door to their big CD factory in the Hannover suburb of Langenhagen, and that both are on newly-renamed Emil-Berliner-Strasse (Street).  DGG was to have had a major celebration in September of this year (1998) to mark its centenary (Polygram has unfortunately had to cancel this and merge it into the 11 Jun 98 anniversary bash), and that EMI (The Gramophone Co.) was 100 in 1997 and issued some fine Emile souvenirs (more Emile collectibles!).  Oliver advises that he was honored by having dedicated both the house and the street in Stoecken (see below).

Checking the timeline (click on "The HISTORY") on DGG's site, I found a page (unloadable) on the Emil Berliner Haus; it was opened in 1996 and the dedication ceremony was attended by members of the Berliner family.

See the bibliography for another book, about the Hannover Berliners.

Another is Vienna's Phonomuseum, at Mollardgasse 8, A-1060 Wien, Tel.: (+43-1) 58 11 159

Ca. 1988, I had the pleasure of seeing a notable display about another Berliner (who turns out to have been Emile's brother, Joseph) in the Hanover city museum (more on this on the main Emile Berliner page; he was a leading civic light before WWII and his daughter, Clara, was lost at the Theresienstadt camp in the Holocaust; Cora, the daughter of one of Emile's other brothers, Manfred, who had her Ph.D. and was an economics professor, was a heroine of the Holocaust, although eventually also lost.  I wrote to the museum for more background.  If you happen to be in Hanover, the museum is the Historischen Museum Am Hohen Ufer (the Historical Museum on the Upper Bank) at Pferdestrasse 6 and well-worth visiting.  Well, they sent me (Jul 97) a reprint of the cover and pages 76 through 81 of the "100 Jahre Schallplatte - Von Hannover in die Welt, Beiträge und Katalog zur Ausstellung vom 29.September bis 10.Januar 1988 im Historischen Museum am Hohen Ufer, Hannover", covering the Berliner family (remember - it's NOT mine)!  See a fine translation on a separate page.  There is also more information about Emile's other ventures with his brothers (they also founded what is today's Kabelmetal while they were at it) on that page.

Library of Congress BERLINER COLLECTION

BIG NEWS! - While not exactly a museum, the Library of Congress has just released its presentation, Emile Berliner and the Birth of the Recording Industry, a collection which contains a selection of more than 400 items from the Emile Berliner Papers and 108 Berliner sound recordings from the Library of Congress's Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division.  The announcement states that, although "the focus of the online collection is on the Gramophone and its recordings, it includes much evidence of Berliner's other interests, such as information on his businesses, his crusades for public-health issues, his philanthropy, his musical composition, and even his poetry.  Spanning the years 1870 to 1956, the collection comprises correspondence, articles, lectures, speeches, scrapbooks, photographs, catalogs, clippings, experiment notes, and rare sound recordings.  More than 100 sound recordings from the Berliner Gramophone Co. are featured on the site, demonstrating the various genres produced in the 1890s, including band music, instrumentals, comedy, spoken word, popular songs, opera, and foreign-language songs.  Noted performers such as the Sousa Band appear, and rarities are featured such as a recording of Buffalo Bill giving his Sentiments on the Cuban Question just prior to the Spanish-American War and Native-American ghost dances recorded by the noted ethnologist James Mooney."

{Information largely quoted from the LoC announcement.}

UNESCO lists, in their Memory of the World Register - Germany:  "The oldest sound documents (Edison-cylinders) of traditional music, from 1893 to 1952.  Register list - The Berlin Phonogramm-Archive is a part of the musicological section of the Ethnographical Museum, State Museum at Berlin, Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation [Berliner Phonogramm-Archiv am Museum für Völkerkunde, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz].  More than 145,000 recordings of mu{s}sic representing the cultural heritage of many cultures all over the world excluding Western Art and Pop music are stored on completely different sound carriers such as Edison-phonograms, analog and digital tapes, and all kinds of discs (from 78 shellac discs to LPs and CDs).   This is a world-wide unique sound collection with universal significance and intercultural dimensions."   (25 Jan 05)

The museum can be reached at:

This came to me via the good offices of National Sound Archives of the Jewish National & University Library in Jerusalem, with an announcement of the printing of "Music Archiving in the World", including a CD with musical examples, published by VWB Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung.

There is a Realschule (junior high school) in Stoecken, a suburb of Hanover, which was renamed for Emile, the Emil-Berliner-Schule and Polygram opened Das Emil Berliner Haus (see below) on Emil-Berliner-Strasse (Street).

Grandson Oliver, in his afore-mentioned letter to me of 06 May 1992, also wrote that the family gives The Maker of the Microphone Award annually and that he, himself, received the Golden Gramophone and the Grammy medals on behalf of Emile.  Medals presented to Emile were in the possession of a cousin (now deceased); some may have gone to the Smithsonian and the Library of Congress and some may have been passed down in the family.

Oliver advises (01 Apr 98) that Polygram has opened an Emil Berliner Haus right next door to their big CD factory in the Hannover suburb of Langenhagen, and that both are on newly-renamed Emil-Berliner-Strasse (Street).  DGG was to have had a major celebration in September of 1998 to mark its centenary (Polygram unfortunately had to cancel this and merge it into the 11 Jun 98 anniversary bash), and that EMI (The Gramophone Co.) was 100 in 1997 and issued some fine Emile souvenirs (more Emile collectibles!).  Oliver advises that he was honored by having dedicated both the house and the street in Stoecken (see below).

Deutsche Grammophon maintains an Emil Berliner Studios (recording studio - recording service, audio engineering, tape mastering, and special services, plus a massive archive), in Langenhagen, Germany.  They thoughtfully provide an English version of their entire site.  EBS has a lot of background about Emil(e) B., including a history and chronology. http://www.emil-berliner-studios.com/english/content_creation/index.html

Kurinsky's Fact Papers, noted at the top of the main Emil Berliner page, are at:

Here is a fabulous (and learnèd) contemporary U. S. account of the Berliner Gramophone from page 39 of the February 1888 issue of "The Manufacturer and Builder", courtesy of Cornell University Library's incredible "The Making of America Digital Collection":

[Image from the February 1888 issue of "The Manufacturer and Builder",
courtesy of "The Making of America Digital Collection",
Cornell University Library (by specific written permission) -
all rights reserved to Cornell University.
Thumbnail image - please DO click on the picture for a larger 216Kb image;
it will be very much worth your while to load this image.]

You are really urged to look at the larger image - the text is quite legible and that is NOT a sewing machine (!); the fan in the left front is the air-damped speed controller (just as in a Swiss music box) and the box below the stand contains the battery.  The sheet of paper under the speaker (output) trumpet lying on the bench is inscribed "Reproduction".  Note the (pre-microphone) speaking (input) trumpet hooked directly through a flexible tube to a curved stylus operating under the disk.  I could not help but wonder if the clarity of the disk was artistic license or if the disk was actually transparent or translucent; sure enough, the description advises that the stylus cut into a coating of lampblack deposited on a parchment or glass surface to create a master recording far superior to Edison's tinfoil.

There are also many links in the text of these pages, notably under Berliner and Aviation.

There is an interesting site on surviving Berliner Gramphones and disks, the Berliner Registry Project.

That last helicopter (number 5) that Emil and Henry built and which flew successfully on 24 Feb 1924 belongs to the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum but resides at the College Park Aviation Museum at the airport in College Park, Maryland, the oldest continuously operating airport, founded by the Wright Brothers in 1909 to train military aviators:

(Photo from the College Park Aviation Museum - all rights reserved)

(B. Harrison photos at College Park Aviation Museum - all rights reserved)

To me, this craft looks far more like an autogyro; I'll have to see that NASM film clip of the flight again.

Henry, Jr., advises that the College Park Aviation Museum has "a large collection of Emile and Henry Berliner planes, machine tools and history, as well as data on the ERCO factory site which Henry Sr. established".

United States Gramophone Company

and Henry Adler

Paul Melzer, of Paul Melzer Rare Books & Autographs, member of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America, the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers, the Manuscript Society, and the Ephemera Society, at 797 N. St. Augustine Road, Chesapeake City, Maryland  21915, 410-885-3269, seeks information on the United States Gramophone Company and its treasurer, Henry Adler.  He has a letter on USGC letterhead, dated 19 Jan 1895, written in longhand by, and signed by, Emile Berliner as President:

(Cropped from image of letter owned by P. Melcher - by specific permission - all rights reserved)

"The Manufacturer & Builder", February 1888, Page 39 - a contemporary U. S. account of the Berliner Gramophone, on Cornell University Library's incredible "The Making of America Collection" (see above).

"Revolving Cylinder Motors", Aeronautics, Nov 1913, pp. 165, 171, & 180] (Library of Congress link given).

There is also a rather good Emile Berliner bibliography on the Library of Congress site.

One of the nicest things about having put up these Berliner pages, especially these about Emile and his family, is the wonderful people, like Oliver and henry, Jr., , whom I have met or with whom I have corresponded; the latest are grand-nephew Philipp Goldmann, who advised (Nov 01) about his 1997 book (above) and Henry, Jr., who advised (05 Jun 06) about his son John and about the College Park Museum.   (06 Jun 06)

You might wish to visit my other Berliner pages noted on the INDEX, on the main Emil Berliner page.

THUMBS UP!

THUMBS UP!  -  Support your local police, fire, and emergency personnel!

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S. Berliner, III

To contact S. Berliner, III, please click here.

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of this series of Berliner pages.

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