Abstract

The significance of the German language has altered with time. This analysis highlights how German developed from an early and oral means of communication in the Middle Ages into an important written language of science and scholarship and into a lingua franca in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. It also examines the consequences of the global turn for the usage of German. While especially the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century saw a considerable international demand for German, scientific/scholarly interest decreased with the two World Wars; German suffered a loss of prestige and has gradually been substituted by English as the ultimate and global language of communication. Means such as citation indices and questionnaires suggest that disciplines vary in their application of German. As the author concludes, on a national level, German is nevertheless still a significant language and will remain influential in the long run albeit the increasing use of English words and phrases.