  We propose a generalized finite element method for the strongly damped wave
equation with highly varying coefficients. The proposed method is based on the
localized orthogonal decomposition introduced and is designed to handle
independent variations in both the damping and the wave propagation speed
respectively. The method does so by automatically correcting for the damping in
the transient phase and for the propagation speed in the steady state phase.
Convergence of optimal order is proven in $L_2(H^1)$-norm, independent of the
derivatives of the coefficients. We present numerical examples that confirm the
theoretical findings.
