While destinations like Berlin or Munich may immediately come to mind for German-speaking experiences, there are intriguing options that may have eluded your radar until now. German may not be among the world's most widely spoken languages, unlike its counterparts such as Spanish, French, or Portuguese, but it remains the mother tongue of over 130 million people globally. If you're embarking on the journey of learning German, you might be curious to discover where this language finds its voice around the world. Perhaps you're even contemplating a future trip where you can put your language skills to the test.
The German language is spoken in a number of countries and territories in Europe, where it is used both as an official language and as a minority language in various countries. German is the main language of approximately 95 to 100 million people in Europe, or 13.3% of all Europeans. The European countries with German-speaking majorities are Germany (95%, 78.3 million), Austria (89%, 8.9 million), and Switzerland (65%, 4.6 million), also known as the "D-A-CH" countries, an acronym for Deutschland (Germany), Austria, and Confoederatio Helvetica (the Swiss Confederation).
Today German, together with French, is a common second foreign language in the western world, with English well established as a first foreign language. German ranks second (after English) among the best known foreign languages in the EU (on par with French) as well as in Russia. In terms of student numbers across all levels of education, German ranks third in the EU (after English and French) as well as in the United States (after Spanish and French).
Distribution of German language in Europe
German's Colonial History and African Presence
In the 1880s, Germany emerged as an imperial power. The country’s first chancellor, Otto van Bismarck, invited other European heads of state to Berlin to attend the so-called Congo Conference. Initially, the focus of this was mainly on West Africa, but it resulted in the Scramble for Africa. The Berlin Conference of 1884 sought to regulate trade in Africa as well as the colonization of it.
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Germany, France, Britain, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Belgium divided the continent up among themselves, drawing borders seemingly at will and dividing peoples in the process. This caused incredible violence, displacement, and conflicts that still linger on today. The biggest portion of Africa fell under French and British control. Germany became the colonial ruler over modern-day Namibia (Deutsch-Südwestafrika from 1884 to 1915), Tanzania with Rwanda and Burundi (Deutsch-Ostafrika from 1884 to 1918), as well as Togo (Deutsche Kolonie Togo, 1884 to 1916) and Cameroon (1884 to 1919). The colonizers’ language was forced upon the native population.
After the First World War, Germany lost its colonies to other European powers. Today, Namibia consists of the largest German-speaking population in Africa, with around 20,000 native speakers. In neighboring South Africa, a significant number of people are of German heritage too, which can be traced back to settlers arriving during the 19th century. Many of those were later absorbed into the Afrikaans community and don’t speak German as their first language. Namibia, Tanzania, and especially South Africa remain a popular destination for German travelers.
Namibia: A Unique Case of German Language Use
Namibia is a multilingual country in which German is recognised as a national language. It is the only African nation to do so. During the period when the territory was a German colony from 1884 to 1915, German was the only official language in German Southwest Africa, as Namibia was then known. Boers, i.e. South Africa took over administration of the country in 1915 when it was captured by the Western Allies during World War I. However, German language privileges and education remained in place.
German is especially widely used in central and southern Namibia and was until 1990 one of three official languages in what was then South West Africa, alongside Afrikaans and English, two other Germanic languages in Namibia. German is the mother tongue of German Namibians as well as older black speakers of Namibian Black German and Black Namibians who as children grew up in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) during the last decades of the Cold War. German benefits from its similarity to Afrikaans and has a prominent position in the tourism and business sectors. Many Namibian natural features, places and streets have German names.
After the end of the First World War the South African attitude to the German Namibians changed, and between 1919 and 1920 about half of the Germans were transferred out of the country. The German-speaking population wished German to be reinstated as an official language and in 1932 the Treaty of Cape Town encouraged South Africa to do so. South Africa did not officially recognise German; however, de facto German was added to Afrikaans and English as a working language of the government. After independence in 1990, English became the sole official language of Namibia.
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Languages of Namibia map
About 31,000 Namibians speak German as a mother tongue, and several tens of thousands of Namibians, either white native speakers of English or Afrikaans (with some Portuguese) or metropolitan black Namibians, speak German as a second language. German is taught in many schools, and is the medium for a daily newspaper, the Allgemeine Zeitung, as well as daily programming on the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation. In addition to 32 schools in which about 14,000 pupils learn German as a foreign language, there are about a dozen German-medium schools, including the Deutsche Höhere Privatschule Windhoek (DHPS), German schools in Omaruru and Otjiwarongo as well as five government schools.
Signs for shops, restaurants and services are often in English and German, reflecting not only a high proportion of German-Namibian ownership but also the high number of German-speaking tourists that visit the country. However, a customer entering such a shop may well be greeted in Afrikaans; relatively fewer signs are in Afrikaans but the language retains a leading position as a spoken lingua franca in Windhoek and throughout the central and southern parts of the country. German is also found on signs for tourists, especially those to monuments and historic buildings from the German colonial period.
Unlike other parts of the world with large German immigration and large numbers of German place names, only few places had their name changed, for example Luhonono, the former Schuckmannsburg. Especially in the south, in the regions of Hardap and ǁKaras, many place names are German or Afrikaans. In Windhoek, Swakopmund, Keetmanshoop, Grootfontein and Lüderitz many or most street names are German in origin, even though after 1990 many streets were renamed to honor black Namibian people, predominantly but not exclusively from the currently ruling SWAPO party.
Many colonial buildings and structures have retained their original German names. Examples include Windhoek's castles Heinitzburg, Schwerinsburg and Sanderburg, Windhoek's Alte Feste (Old Fortress) and the Reiterdenkmal (Equestrian Statue) stored in its yard. The German language as spoken in Namibia is characterised by simplification and the adoption of many words from Afrikaans, South African English, and Ovambo and other Bantu languages.
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This variant of German is called variously Südwesterdeutsch (German südwest, southwest, referring to the country's former name, South West Africa); while younger people also call it Namsläng (i.e.
German street signs in Swakopmund
At this point, the Namibian government perceived Afrikaans and German as symbols for Apartheid and colonialism, and decided for English to be the sole official language, claiming that it was a "neutral" language as virtually no English native speakers existed in Namibia at that time. German, Afrikaans and several indigenous languages became "national languages" by law, identifying them as cultural heritages of the nation and ensuring the state to acknowledge and support their presence in the country. Today, German is used in myriad spheres, especially business and tourism, as well as churches (most notably the German-speaking Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (GELK)), schools (e.g., the Deutsche Höhere Privatschule Windhoek), literature (German-Namibian authors include Giselher W. Hoffmann [de]), radio (the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation produces radio programs in German), and music (e.g., artist EES).
Facts about Namibia and Germany - Culture
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