Hörbilder [audio dramas], dramatized scripted scenes with added sound effects, were a precursor to radio plays which emerged after the invention of sound recording technology. They were recorded first on wax cylinders and later on records and distributed as entertainment media. This recording produced by the Deutsche Grammophon record label in the August of 1914  represents an example of the enthusiasm, and the commercialization of that that enthusiasm, that accompanied the mobilization of troops ordered by Wilhelm II on August 1, 1914.  (This commercialized enthusiasm, though completely unofficial, was the earliest example of what we might well call “propaganda” in the German war effort.) This audio drama was sold under the title “Vaterländische Aufnahme der Deutschen Grammophon zum Besten deutscher Krieger und deren Angehörigen“ [Patriotic Recording Made by Deutsche Grammophon for the Benefit of German Soldiers and Their Families]. Like many record labels, film production companies, newspapers and magazines, Deutsche Grammophon advertised its willingness to support the war effort on the home front (and capitalized on that support) by producing patriotic fare such as this recording.

In a fictional scene a battalion is leaving its garrison in an unnamed German town. The town’s mayor and the battalion’s colonel both give a short speech to the assembled citizens and soldiers before the battalion boards a train. While the mayor repeats the German government’s official assertion that Germany had been forced to fight a defensive war, the colonel emphasizes the willingness of the soldiers to sacrifice their lives for their country. The text is interspersed with military commands and patriotic or military songs, such as Die Wacht am Rhein. The belief held by many Germans at this point that the war would be short and victorious for their country is expressed in the words of a family member who wants to know where to send his letters to a frontline soldier and then confidently decides to just send them to Paris since the German troops would soon occupy the French capital.