The only known voice recording of powerful German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, who died in 1898, has been found and authenticated, a German researcher said.

According to me and I have a certain experience, these are really original recordings

The wax cylinder phonograph recording was made in 1889 by an associate of Thomas Edison, Adelbert Wangemann, said Stephan Puille, from the University of Applied Sciences in Berlin.

“According to me and I have a certain experience, these are really original recordings,” said Mr Puille, who along with Patrick Feaster of Indiana University “identified these cylinders which were thought to have disappeared”.

The New York Times first published the news, saying the recordings had the “Iron Chancellor” reciting “snippets of poetry and songs in English, Latin, French and German”, including lines from the French national anthem.

“Bismarck ends the recording with some advice, apparently for his son Herbert, ... to live life in moderation,” it said.

The cylinders were found in Edison’s laboratory in 1957 but research work on them only began in 2005.