Stimmen der Zeit, a unique history of Germany in the 20th century, told
through the voices of the personalities who defined the era. Comprising
three hour-long compact discs with MP3 and a 216-page electronic
transcription (PDF) on a separate CD with an extensive German-English
glossary, Stimmen der Zeit offers listeners an opportunity to hear the
voices and see the faces of Germans who shaped their country's history
in the last century, as well as those who made significant social,
technological, economic, intellectual, and artistic contributions. In
the first hour, you hear rare, early recordings of Kaiser Wilhelm II,
General Paul von Hindenburg, Albert Einstein, Alfred Braun, Thomas Mann,
and Bertolt Brecht. On the second CD, the chilling voices of Adolf
Hitler, Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Eichmann, and Hermann Göring help tell
the story of a nation plunged into darkness, while subsequent segments,
including excerpts from speeches by Konrad Adenauer and Willy Brandt,
recount how West Germany laid new democratic foundations in the postwar
period and achieved its "economic miracle." The third CD, covering the
last 30 years of the century, presents the politicians who sought to
preserve a socialist society in East Germany, as well as such
contemporary leaders as Helmut Kohl, Johannes Rau, Merkel & Schroder
who worked to reunite a nation and set it on a sound course for the
future.