Hörbilder [audio dramas] were scripted drama scenes with added sound effects and emerged after the invention of sound recording technology. A precursor to radio plays, these Hörbilder were recorded on wax cylinders and distributed as entertainment media. Historical events were popular topics for audio dramas, including wars and battles in which German troops had supposedly proven their proficiency and valor. This recording from 1905 depicts a fictional scene from the war that began in 1904 in the colony of German Southwest Africa (present-day Namibia) between the German colonial forces and the Herero and Nama, who had risen in a rebellion. This short scene depicts the disciplined actions of a German troop unit during the fighting, whose military drill is contrasted with that of the “Herero gangs.” In reality, under the command of Lothar von Trotha, the colonial war escalated into a genocidal campaign of extermination that claimed the lives of between one-third and two-thirds of the Herero population before the war ended in 1907.