The Royal Prussian Phonographic Commission was founded in 1915 with the goal of documenting the language and music of foreign soldiers interned in German prison camps. Among the holdings of the Berlin Phonogram Archive in the Ethnologisches Museum, the wax cylinder collection "Phonographische Kommission (Phonographic Commission)" with some 1000 cylinders remains the most extensive of the historical collections. The sound documents consist exclusively of music recordings.

Photographs from the holdings of the Museum Europäischer Kulturen from the Wüns-dorf and Zossen prison camps near Berlin complete the sound recording collection. These prisoners received special treatment from the Germans, who wanted to "re-educate" them to serve in the German ranks. To this end, the photographs taken by Otto Stiehl for the camp commandant's office were also used for propaganda.