This recording was made as a promotional item for the phonograph manufacturer and record label Deutsche Grammophon’s tenth anniversary in 1908. Deutsche Grammophon had been founded in 1898 by Emile Berliner, the inventor of the gramophone record. Berliner, who had migrated to the United States from Germany in 1870, had previously founded gramophone companies in the U.S. and Great Britain. The recording is set in “the year 2000,” when the audience at a “speaking machine festival” are welcomed by the voice of one such “speaking machine.” Humorously foreshadowing the development of computers and artificial intelligence, the voice reflects back on the days before all human activity was taken over by machines and reminds listeners how lucky they were to no longer have to walk, write, speak, or even think for themselves anymore. The voice on this recording is that of comedic actor Gustav Schönwald, who was among the first German actors to lend his voice to phonograph recordings. While this futuristic scenario seemed comically unlikely to its author in 1908, the rapid advances in mechanization and technology at the time did have many Germans worried about their impact on human life and work and drew some to reform movements seeking a return to a less technologically driven way of life.