IASA-BAAC 2026 Conference

Name: A Necessary Challenge: Critical Audio Edition of Hitler’s Speeches 1933-1945
Start: 2026-10-22T12:00:00+0300
End: 2026-10-22T12:30:00+0300

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A Necessary Challenge: Critical Audio Edition of Hitler’s Speeches 1933-1945

Thursday October 22, 2026 12:00pm - 12:30pm EEST

Education hall: Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania

Editing Adolf Hitler’s speeches is a necessary challenge. As key documents produced by perpetrators, they are essential for critically examining the Nazi era. Making these sources accessible requires careful ethical consideration. In a joint project, funded by the German Research Foundation, the Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History (Munich / Berlin), the Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, the Marburg University, the Leibniz Institute for German Language (Mannheim) and the German Broadcasting Archive (Frankfurt am Main / Potsdam) will identify, analyse and edit the extensive amount of speeches that Hitler delivered between 1933 and 1945. 735 speeches will be made available as a text edition (digital / print), accompanied by introductions to the current state of knowledge and the historical context. The 346 speeches that have been preserved as audio documents will be made available to a restricted group of users in the form of a critically annotated digital audio edition that can be searched and analysed using advanced machine learning methods. This edition will enable scholars to answer specific questions that remained unresolved due to the limited accessibility of the sources in the past. At the same time, the edition aims at our present: analysing Hitler’s speeches enables comparisons to be drawn with the language used by contemporary extremists and populists. Next to providing an overview of the project as a whole, the presentation will be given from the perspective of the archive and will focus on the audio edition: We will reflect on the challenges of (a) compiling and documenting a collection that has been preserved in different archives across Europe as a result of World War II, (b) digitising audio sources that have been preserved on different carriers, in different formats and in various conditions, and (c) – our key aspect – digitally restoring a heterogeneous collection of audio files, which makes it difficult to adopt a consistent technical approach.

Speakers

Simon Frei

Audio Engineer, Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv / German Broadcasting Archive

Since 2024, Simon Frei has been responsible for the digitisation, digital processing, and restoration of audio recordings in the research project "Critial Edition of Hitler's Speeches 1933-1945". With 20 years of professional experience as a sound engineer specialising in the production... Read More →

Dr. Götz Lachwitz

Research Specialist / Project Manager, Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv / German Broadcasting Archive

Dr. Götz Lachwitz has been a research specialist at the German Broadcasting Archive (DRA) in Potsdam-Babelsberg since August 2020. Following an apprenticeship as an audio engineer, he went on to study Media Studies in Bonn. He then worked as an academic assistant at the University... Read More →

Thursday October 22, 2026 12:00pm - 12:30pm EEST
Education hall: Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania

Short Presentation, In Person

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Zoom link https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81977024051
Zoom password 867213

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IASA-BAAC 2026 Conference

Simon Frei

Dr. Götz Lachwitz

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IASA-BAAC 2026 Conference

Simon Frei

Dr. Götz Lachwitz

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