84-813: Free Voters ( German : Freie Wähler , FW) is a political party in Germany . It originates as an umbrella organisation of several Free Voters Associations ( Freie Wählergemeinschaften ), associations of people which participate in an election without having the status of a registered party. These associations are usually locally-organised groups of voters in the form of a registered association (eV). In most cases, Free Voters campaign only at local government level, standing for city councils and for mayoralties . Free Voters tend to achieve their most successful electoral results in rural areas of southern Germany, appealing most to conservative voters who prefer local decisions to party politics. Free Voter groups are active in all of
168-460: A de facto official language of Namibia after the end of German colonial rule alongside English and Afrikaans , and had de jure co-official status from 1984 until its independence from South Africa in 1990. However, the Namibian government perceived Afrikaans and German as symbols of apartheid and colonialism, and decided English would be the sole official language upon independence, stating that it
252-402: A second language , and 75–100 million as a foreign language . This would imply the existence of approximately 175–220 million German speakers worldwide. German sociolinguist Ulrich Ammon estimated a number of 289 million German foreign language speakers without clarifying the criteria by which he classified a speaker. As of 2012 , about 90 million people, or 16% of
336-587: A "commonly used" language and the Pan South African Language Board is obligated to promote and ensure respect for it. Cameroon was also a colony of the German Empire from the same period (1884 to 1916). However, German was replaced by French and English, the languages of the two successor colonial powers, after its loss in World War I . Nevertheless, since the 21st century, German has become
420-706: A 2% threshold, but this will not yet apply in the 2024 election. In 2019, the de facto threshold for a seat was around 0.7% of the vote. The table shows the detailed composition of the German seats at the European Parliament as of 12 March 2024. Political parties and other political associations may submit lists for the European elections. The lists must be submitted by the 83rd day before the election. Nationwide lists must be signed by 4,000 eligible voters, state lists by 1 per thousand, but not more than 2,000 eligible voters of
504-554: A few days earlier . In a May 2024 interview with Italian newspaper La Repubblica AfD Maximilian Krah argued that not all members of the Waffen-SS should be judged as criminals, citing the example of Günter Grass , a former Nobel Prize winner for literature and member of the Waffen-SS, and added “I would never say that anyone who wore an SS uniform was automatically a criminal. Among the 900,000 SS, there were also many peasants: there
588-545: A former member of the Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU). The party also reached its best performance yet in raw votes, receiving 1,085,896 votes. In the 2009 federal election , the Free Voters received 0.03% of the national vote (11,243 votes in total). In the 2013 Bavarian state election , the Free Voters repeated their success, gaining 19 seats albeit at 9.0% of the vote. In the 2013 federal election ,
672-556: A greater need for regularity in written conventions. While the major changes of the MHG period were socio-cultural, High German was still undergoing significant linguistic changes in syntax, phonetics, and morphology as well (e.g. diphthongization of certain vowel sounds: hus (OHG & MHG "house") → haus (regionally in later MHG)→ Haus (NHG), and weakening of unstressed short vowels to schwa [ə]: taga (OHG "days")→ tage (MHG)). A great wealth of texts survives from
756-453: A native tongue today, mostly descendants of German colonial settlers . The period of German colonialism in Namibia also led to the evolution of a Standard German-based pidgin language called " Namibian Black German ", which became a second language for parts of the indigenous population. Although it is nearly extinct today, some older Namibians still have some knowledge of it. German remained
840-679: A popular foreign language among pupils and students, with 300,000 people learning or speaking German in Cameroon in 2010 and over 230,000 in 2020. Today Cameroon is one of the African countries outside Namibia with the highest number of people learning German. In the United States, German is the fifth most spoken language in terms of native and second language speakers after English, Spanish , French , and Chinese (with figures for Cantonese and Mandarin combined), with over 1 million total speakers. In
924-475: A result, the surviving texts are written in highly disparate regional dialects and exhibit significant Latin influence, particularly in vocabulary. At this point monasteries, where most written works were produced, were dominated by Latin, and German saw only occasional use in official and ecclesiastical writing. While there is no complete agreement over the dates of the Middle High German (MHG) period, it
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#17330847759001008-688: Is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family , mainly spoken in Western and Central Europe . It is the most spoken native language within the European Union . It is the most widely spoken and official (or co-official) language in Germany , Austria , Switzerland , Liechtenstein , and the Italian autonomous province of South Tyrol . It is also an official language of Luxembourg , Belgium and
1092-580: Is a recognized minority language in the following countries: In France, the High German varieties of Alsatian and Moselle Franconian are identified as " regional languages ", but the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages of 1998 has not yet been ratified by the government. Namibia also was a colony of the German Empire, from 1884 to 1915. About 30,000 people still speak German as
1176-596: Is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects , with many varieties existing in Europe and other parts of the world. Some of these non-standard varieties have become recognized and protected by regional or national governments. Since 2004, heads of state of the German-speaking countries have met every year, and the Council for German Orthography has been the main international body regulating German orthography . German
1260-546: Is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Germanic group of the Germanic languages . The Germanic languages are traditionally subdivided into three branches: North Germanic , East Germanic , and West Germanic . The first of these branches survives in modern Danish , Swedish , Norwegian , Faroese , and Icelandic , all of which are descended from Old Norse . The East Germanic languages are now extinct, and Gothic
1344-472: Is called the "German Sprachraum ". German is the official language of the following countries: German is a co-official language of the following countries: Although expulsions and (forced) assimilation after the two World wars greatly diminished them, minority communities of mostly bilingual German native speakers exist in areas both adjacent to and detached from the Sprachraum. Within Europe, German
1428-430: Is complicated by the existence of several varieties whose status as separate "languages" or "dialects" is disputed for political and linguistic reasons, including quantitatively strong varieties like certain forms of Alemannic and Low German . With the inclusion or exclusion of certain varieties, it is estimated that approximately 90–95 million people speak German as a first language , 10–25 million speak it as
1512-520: Is generally seen as ending when the 1346–53 Black Death decimated Europe's population. Modern High German begins with the Early New High German (ENHG) period, which Wilhelm Scherer dates 1350–1650, terminating with the end of the Thirty Years' War . This period saw the further displacement of Latin by German as the primary language of courtly proceedings and, increasingly, of literature in
1596-595: Is generally seen as lasting from 1050 to 1350. This was a period of significant expansion of the geographical territory occupied by Germanic tribes, and consequently of the number of German speakers. Whereas during the Old High German period the Germanic tribes extended only as far east as the Elbe and Saale rivers, the MHG period saw a number of these tribes expanding beyond this eastern boundary into Slavic territory (known as
1680-559: Is less closely related to languages based on Low Franconian dialects (e.g., Dutch and Afrikaans), Low German or Low Saxon dialects (spoken in northern Germany and southern Denmark ), neither of which underwent the High German consonant shift. As has been noted, the former of these dialect types is Istvaeonic and the latter Ingvaeonic, whereas the High German dialects are all Irminonic; the differences between these languages and standard German are therefore considerable. Also related to German are
1764-435: Is one of the major languages of the world . German is the second-most widely spoken Germanic language , after English, both as a first and as a second language . German is also widely taught as a foreign language , especially in continental Europe (where it is the third most taught foreign language after English and French), and in the United States. Overall, German is the fourth most commonly learned second language, and
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#17330847759001848-587: Is one of the three biggest newspapers in Namibia and the only German-language daily in Africa. An estimated 12,000 people speak German or a German variety as a first language in South Africa, mostly originating from different waves of immigration during the 19th and 20th centuries. One of the largest communities consists of the speakers of "Nataler Deutsch", a variety of Low German concentrated in and around Wartburg . The South African constitution identifies German as
1932-401: Is partly derived from Latin and Greek , along with fewer words borrowed from French and Modern English . English, however, is the main source of more recent loanwords . German is a pluricentric language ; the three standardized variants are German , Austrian , and Swiss Standard German . Standard German is sometimes called High German , which refers to its regional origin. German
2016-510: Is the Sachsenspiegel , the first book of laws written in Middle Low German ( c. 1220 ). The abundance and especially the secular character of the literature of the MHG period demonstrate the beginnings of a standardized written form of German, as well as the desire of poets and authors to be understood by individuals on supra-dialectal terms. The Middle High German period
2100-566: Is the only language in this branch which survives in written texts. The West Germanic languages, however, have undergone extensive dialectal subdivision and are now represented in modern languages such as English, German, Dutch , Yiddish , Afrikaans , and others. Within the West Germanic language dialect continuum, the Benrath and Uerdingen lines (running through Düsseldorf - Benrath and Krefeld - Uerdingen , respectively) serve to distinguish
2184-481: Is understood in all areas where German is spoken. Approximate distribution of native German speakers (assuming a rounded total of 95 million) worldwide: As a result of the German diaspora , as well as the popularity of German taught as a foreign language , the geographical distribution of German speakers (or "Germanophones") spans all inhabited continents. However, an exact, global number of native German speakers
2268-673: The Ostsiedlung ). With the increasing wealth and geographic spread of the Germanic groups came greater use of German in the courts of nobles as the standard language of official proceedings and literature. A clear example of this is the mittelhochdeutsche Dichtersprache employed in the Hohenstaufen court in Swabia as a standardized supra-dialectal written language. While these efforts were still regionally bound, German began to be used in place of Latin for certain official purposes, leading to
2352-508: The 2024 European Parliament election in Germany , the Free Voters won 2.7% of the vote and three seats, electing Christine Singer , Joachim Streit and Engin Eroglu to the European Parliament. In the 2024 Saxony state election , the Free Voters entered the Landtag of Saxony for the first time. Despite failing to reach the 5% threshold with only 2.3% of the vote, the party won a direct mandate in
2436-627: The Alamanni , Bavarian, and Thuringian groups, all belonging to the Elbe Germanic group ( Irminones ), which had settled in what is now southern-central Germany and Austria between the second and sixth centuries, during the great migration. In general, the surviving texts of Old High German (OHG) show a wide range of dialectal diversity with very little written uniformity. The early written tradition of OHG survived mostly through monasteries and scriptoria as local translations of Latin originals; as
2520-555: The Danish People's Party announced they would part ways with the AfD and cease formal collaboration with the party after the 2024 European Parliament election . The larger map denotes the results by districts and cities, while the smaller shows results in 16 states, including three city-states. The AfD and the BSW overperformed drastically in the former East Germany , except for Berlin, where
2604-522: The Early Middle Ages . German is an inflected language , with four cases for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative); three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) and two numbers (singular, plural). It has strong and weak verbs . The majority of its vocabulary derives from the ancient Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, while a smaller share
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2688-837: The European Committee of the Regions should be given a permanent position in the EU Parliament. Furthermore, the party supports broader online access to official information for voters to make more informed decisions. The Free Voters do not contest state elections in Brandenburg due to the close cooperation with the BVB/Free Voters , who only compete in the state elections in Brandenburg. German language German (German: Deutsch , pronounced [dɔʏtʃ] )
2772-417: The European Union 's population, spoke German as their mother tongue, making it the second most widely spoken language on the continent after Russian and the second biggest language in terms of overall speakers (after English), as well as the most spoken native language. The area in central Europe where the majority of the population speaks German as a first language and has German as a (co-)official language
2856-572: The Free Democratic Party and the Party of Bible-abiding Christians (now merged into Alliance C - Christians for Germany ), and by others as between the Christian Social Union and the Alternative for Germany (AfD). Europe Elects has described it as centrist. Politico has described the party as conservative and right-wing , noting the similarities between their rhetoric and the statements of
2940-514: The German states . While these states were still part of the Holy Roman Empire , and far from any form of unification, the desire for a cohesive written language that would be understandable across the many German-speaking principalities and kingdoms was stronger than ever. As a spoken language German remained highly fractured throughout this period, with a vast number of often mutually incomprehensible regional dialects being spoken throughout
3024-724: The Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I , and the other being Meißner Deutsch , used in the Electorate of Saxony in the Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg . Alongside these courtly written standards, the invention of the printing press led to the development of a number of printers' languages ( Druckersprachen ) aimed at making printed material readable and understandable across as many diverse dialects of German as possible. The greater ease of production and increased availability of written texts brought about increased standardisation in
3108-441: The Landtag of Rhineland-Palatinate for the first time, amassing 5.4% of the vote and six seats. In the 2021 federal election , the Free Voters received 2.4% of the national vote (1,125,667 votes in total), winning roughly half of those votes from the state of Bavaria , where it received 7.5% (566,880 votes) of the vote and came 5th. The Free Voters hence became the most voted for party that failed to receive Bundestag seats. In
3192-644: The Old High German language in several Elder Futhark inscriptions from as early as the sixth century AD (such as the Pforzen buckle ), the Old High German period is generally seen as beginning with the Abrogans (written c. 765–775 ), a Latin-German glossary supplying over 3,000 Old High German words with their Latin equivalents. After the Abrogans , the first coherent works written in Old High German appear in
3276-640: The Sprachraum in Europe. German is used in a wide variety of spheres throughout the country, especially in business, tourism, and public signage, as well as in education, churches (most notably the German-speaking Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (GELK) ), other cultural spheres such as music, and media (such as German language radio programs by the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation ). The Allgemeine Zeitung
3360-536: The Standard German language in its written form, and the Duden Handbook was declared its standard definition. Punctuation and compound spelling (joined or isolated compounds) were not standardized in the process. The Deutsche Bühnensprache ( lit. ' German stage language ' ) by Theodor Siebs had established conventions for German pronunciation in theatres , three years earlier; however, this
3444-503: The Upper German dialects spoken in the southern German-speaking countries , such as Swiss German ( Alemannic dialects ) and the various Germanic dialects spoken in the French region of Grand Est , such as Alsatian (mainly Alemannic, but also Central–and Upper Franconian dialects) and Lorraine Franconian (Central Franconian). After these High German dialects, standard German
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3528-462: The pagan Germanic tradition. Of particular interest to scholars, however, has been the Hildebrandslied , a secular epic poem telling the tale of an estranged father and son unknowingly meeting each other in battle. Linguistically, this text is highly interesting due to the mixed use of Old Saxon and Old High German dialects in its composition. The written works of this period stem mainly from
3612-461: The states of Germany . In the 2003 Bavaria state election , the FW association received 4.0% of the vote (411,306 votes), barely missing the 5% threshold required to enter the state Landtag. In the 2008 Bavaria state election , the FW association received 10.2% of the vote and gained their first 20 seats in the Landtag of Bavaria . FW may have been helped by the presence in its list of Gabriele Pauli ,
3696-415: The voting age for European parliamentary elections from 18 to 16 prior to this election. Since the 2014 European Parliament election , Germany does not have an overriding threshold of the vote share required in order for a party to win an EP seat — unlike the 5% threshold in national elections. This has allowed a number of smaller parties to gain representation, since they only have to reach about 0.5% of
3780-560: The AfD (such as opposition to mandatory vaccination and other COVID issues). The Free Voters believe in immediate action toward organized crime, and support the "maximum use of the penal framework". They support more power to the police and judiciary system. The Free Voters support an immigration policy based off the Canadian model. They demand a limit on family reunification for asylum seekers and want to create return assistance. The Free Voters support laws that ensure age-appropriate use of
3864-618: The CSU. Following the 2019 European Parliament election in Germany , the Free Voters sit in the Renew Europe group in the European Parliament with two MEPs. In the European Committee of the Regions , the Free Voters sit in the Renew Europe CoR group with one alternate member for the 2020–2025 mandate. In the 2021 Rhineland-Palatinate state election , the Free Voters entered
3948-714: The Empire. Its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Prague (German: Prag ) and Budapest ( Buda , German: Ofen ), to name two examples, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain; others, like Pressburg ( Pozsony , now Bratislava), were originally settled during the Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest, Bratislava, and cities like Zagreb (German: Agram ) or Ljubljana (German: Laibach ), contained significant German minorities. In
4032-649: The Free Voters received 1.0% of the national vote (423,977 votes in total). In the 2014 European parliament elections in Germany, the Free Voters list received 1.46% of the national vote and returned a single MEP , Ulrike Müller , who sits with the ALDE Group . The federal Free Voters association joined the European Democratic Party in October 2015. In June 2017, Arne Gericke , who sits with European Parliament's European Conservatives and Reformists group and
4116-718: The Frisian languages— North Frisian (spoken in Nordfriesland ), Saterland Frisian (spoken in Saterland ), and West Frisian (spoken in Friesland )—as well as the Anglic languages of English and Scots. These Anglo-Frisian dialects did not take part in the High German consonant shift, and the Anglic languages also adopted much vocabulary from both Old Norse and the Norman language . The history of
4200-475: The German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the Migration Period , which separated Old High German dialects from Old Saxon . This sound shift involved a drastic change in the pronunciation of both voiced and voiceless stop consonants ( b , d , g , and p , t , k , respectively). The primary effects of the shift were the following below. While there is written evidence of
4284-399: The German states; the invention of the printing press c. 1440 and the publication of Luther's vernacular translation of the Bible in 1534, however, had an immense effect on standardizing German as a supra-dialectal written language. The ENHG period saw the rise of several important cross-regional forms of chancery German, one being gemeine tiutsch , used in the court of
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#17330847759004368-623: The Germanic dialects that were affected by the High German consonant shift (south of Benrath) from those that were not (north of Uerdingen). The various regional dialects spoken south of these lines are grouped as High German dialects, while those spoken to the north comprise the Low German and Low Franconian dialects. As members of the West Germanic language family, High German, Low German, and Low Franconian have been proposed to be further distinguished historically as Irminonic , Ingvaeonic , and Istvaeonic , respectively. This classification indicates their historical descent from dialects spoken by
4452-418: The Greens secured the first place, albeit with 8.2% less than in 2019. Overall, the AfD got the highest vote totals in all five former East German states, while the Union secured pluralities in all eight non-city-states to the west of the former border. In addition to Berlin, the Greens also maintained a plurality in the port city-state of Hamburg, though at a 9.9 percentage points lower level than in 2019, while
4536-547: The Irminones (also known as the Elbe group), Ingvaeones (or North Sea Germanic group), and Istvaeones (or Weser–Rhine group). Standard German is based on a combination of Thuringian - Upper Saxon and Upper Franconian dialects, which are Central German and Upper German dialects belonging to the High German dialect group. German is therefore closely related to the other languages based on High German dialects, such as Luxembourgish (based on Central Franconian dialects ) and Yiddish . Also closely related to Standard German are
4620-644: The Italian autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia , as well as a recognized national language in Namibia . There are also notable German-speaking communities in France ( Alsace ), the Czech Republic ( North Bohemia ), Poland ( Upper Silesia ), Slovakia ( Košice Region , Spiš , and Hauerland ), Denmark ( North Schleswig ), Romania and Hungary ( Sopron ). Overseas, sizeable communities of German-speakers are found in Brazil ( Blumenau and Pomerode ), South Africa ( Kroondal ), Namibia , among others, some communities have decidedly Austrian German or Swiss German characters (e.g. Pozuzo , Peru). German
4704-468: The Leipzig Land III constituency, electing Matthias Berger to the Landtag of Saxony. The Free Voters are a conservative party, supporting devolving more power to the local level. As of 2019, the party was in opposition to the European Union 's financial policies. In 2024, the party was described by Euractiv as including both liberals and conservatives. Ideologically, on the political spectrum , it has been described by some sources as being between
4788-408: The MHG period. Significantly, these texts include a number of impressive secular works, such as the Nibelungenlied , an epic poem telling the story of the dragon -slayer Siegfried ( c. thirteenth century ), and the Iwein , an Arthurian verse poem by Hartmann von Aue ( c. 1203 ), lyric poems , and courtly romances such as Parzival and Tristan . Also noteworthy
4872-493: The attack; the demonstration was held under the slogan "Violence has no place in our democracy". On 4 May 2024, Holger Kühnlenz , an AfD member of the Lower Saxony state parliament, was pelted with eggs in Nordhorn and punched in the face. In addition, an AfD election campaign stand in Dresden was damaged. On 5 June 2024, Heinrich Koch , an AfD local council candidate was stabbed in Mannheim when "confronting poster vandals." Another knife-related attack took place in Mannheim
4956-430: The development of non-local forms of language and exposed all speakers to forms of German from outside their own area. With Luther's rendering of the Bible in the vernacular, German asserted itself against the dominance of Latin as a legitimate language for courtly, literary, and now ecclesiastical subject-matter. His Bible was ubiquitous in the German states: nearly every household possessed a copy. Nevertheless, even with
5040-404: The dialect so as to make the work as natural and accessible to German speakers as possible. Copies of Luther's Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region, translating words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Luther said the following concerning his translation method: One who would talk German does not ask the Latin how he shall do it; he must ask the mother in
5124-435: The eastern provinces of Banat , Bukovina , and Transylvania (German: Banat, Buchenland, Siebenbürgen ), German was the predominant language not only in the larger towns—like Temeschburg ( Timișoara ), Hermannstadt ( Sibiu ), and Kronstadt ( Brașov )—but also in many smaller localities in the surrounding areas. In 1901, the Second Orthographic Conference ended with a (nearly) complete standardization of
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#17330847759005208-403: The first European Parliament election after Brexit . The election saw the CDU/CSU slightly increase its vote share, while all three parties comprising the government — the SPD, the Greens and the FDP — earned fewer votes than five years ago, with the Greens in particular suffering especially high losses. Conversely, the far-right AfD surged in both votes and seats, finishing second. There
5292-451: The following other parties and political associations were accepted: In the last week of April 2024, campaign workers from the Greens , Volt and Left Party were attacked and in some cases injured while putting up posters. On 3 May 2024, Matthias Ecke ( SPD ) was attacked while putting up posters for the 2024 European elections in Dresden . He suffered a fracture to his eye socket and had to undergo surgery. State security took over
5376-436: The former East German states. The 2024 European Parliament election was the first national election to be held in Germany since the 2021 federal election , in which former Chancellor Angela Merkel 's Christian Democrats CDU-CSU lost to the Social Democratic Party (SPD) led by Olaf Scholz who formed a " traffic light coalition " with the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and the Alliance 90/The Greens . The coalition lowered
5460-435: The home, the children on the streets, the common man in the market-place and note carefully how they talk, then translate accordingly. They will then understand what is said to them because it is German. When Christ says ' ex abundantia cordis os loquitur ,' I would translate, if I followed the papists, aus dem Überflusz des Herzens redet der Mund . But tell me is this talking German? What German understands such stuff? No,
5544-417: The influence of Luther's Bible as an unofficial written standard, a widely accepted standard for written German did not appear until the middle of the eighteenth century. German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire , which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe . Until the mid-nineteenth century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of
5628-619: The internet and media and promote the expansion of addiction and violence prevention, and want to expand intergenerational care networks. On the European Union, the Free Voters oppose the accession of Turkey , while supporting the Union's enlargement by including more Western Balkan states into the Union. The party supports Ukraine in the Russian invasion of Ukraine and believes that Ukraine should have its full, pre-war territory restored. The party also supports recognizing Taiwan as an independent nation. The Free Voters believe that local self-government should be strengthened, and demands that
5712-588: The investigation, as it was assumed that the attack was politically motivated. Shortly before this, a campaign worker for Bündnis 90/Die Grünen had already been attacked at the same location while putting up posters. On 5 May, a 17-year-old turned himself in and admitted to the attack on Ecke. The three other suspects were then also identified. After the incident in Dresden, the alliances "Zusammen gegen Rechts" and "Wir sind die Brandmauer Dresden" called for demonstrations in Dresden and Berlin on 5 May 2024. In Dresden, 3,000 participants gathered to show solidarity after
5796-400: The largest concentrations of German speakers are in the states of Rio Grande do Sul (where Riograndenser Hunsrückisch developed), Santa Catarina , and Espírito Santo . 2024 European Parliament election in Germany The 2024 European Parliament election in Germany was held on 9 June 2024. It was the tenth parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979 , and
5880-402: The mother in the home and the plain man would say, Wesz das Herz voll ist, des gehet der Mund über . Luther's translation of the Bible into High German was also decisive for the German language and its evolution from Early New High German to modern Standard German. The publication of Luther's Bible was a decisive moment in the spread of literacy in early modern Germany , and promoted
5964-423: The ninth century, chief among them being the Muspilli , Merseburg charms , and Hildebrandslied , and other religious texts (the Georgslied , Ludwigslied , Evangelienbuch , and translated hymns and prayers). The Muspilli is a Christian poem written in a Bavarian dialect offering an account of the soul after the Last Judgment , and the Merseburg charms are transcriptions of spells and charms from
6048-462: The pronunciation of the ending -ig as [ɪk] instead of [ɪç]. In Northern Germany, High German was a foreign language to most inhabitants, whose native dialects were subsets of Low German. It was usually encountered only in writing or formal speech; in fact, most of High German was a written language, not identical to any spoken dialect, throughout the German-speaking area until well into the 19th century. However, wider standardization of pronunciation
6132-481: The respective state (section 9 (5) EuWG). Parties that have been represented in the Bundestag, a regional parliament or the European Parliament with at least five members since its last election are exempt from the obligation to submit supporting signatures. These are (sorted by election results 2019): The following other parties are currently represented in the European Parliament with one MEP each: The federal lists of
6216-541: The states of North Dakota and South Dakota , German is the most common language spoken at home after English. As a legacy of significant German immigration to the country , German geographical names can be found throughout the Midwest region , such as New Ulm and Bismarck (North Dakota's state capital), plus many other regions. A number of German varieties have developed in the country and are still spoken today, such as Pennsylvania Dutch and Texas German . In Brazil,
6300-496: The third most commonly learned second language in the United States in K-12 education. The language has been influential in the fields of philosophy, theology, science, and technology. It is the second most commonly used language in science and the third most widely used language on websites . The German-speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of annual publication of new books, with one-tenth of all books (including e-books) in
6384-589: The vote share needed to get their first seat under the Webster/Sainte-Laguë method . Germany is entitled to elect 96 Members of the European Parliament . Although the European Council had recommended that countries with more than 35 MEPs should introduce a threshold between 2% and 5%, the German government abandoned its plans for a 2% threshold in November 2018. In 2022, the government decided to introduce
6468-543: The world being published in German. German is most closely related to other West Germanic languages, namely Afrikaans , Dutch , English , the Frisian languages , and Scots . It also contains close similarities in vocabulary to some languages in the North Germanic group , such as Danish , Norwegian , and Swedish . Modern German gradually developed from Old High German , which in turn developed from Proto-Germanic during
6552-627: The written form of German. One of the central events in the development of ENHG was the publication of Luther's translation of the Bible into High German (the New Testament was published in 1522; the Old Testament was published in parts and completed in 1534). Luther based his translation primarily on the Meißner Deutsch of Saxony , spending much time among the population of Saxony researching
6636-429: Was a "neutral" language as there were virtually no English native speakers in Namibia at that time. German, Afrikaans, and several indigenous languages thus became "national languages" by law, identifying them as elements of the cultural heritage of the nation and ensuring that the state acknowledged and supported their presence in the country. Today, Namibia is considered to be the only German-speaking country outside of
6720-479: Was a stark regional disparity: The AfD won at least a plurality in all but six districts in former East Germany : Potsdam and Potsdam-Mittelmark in Brandenburg, the cities of Erfurt , Jena and Weimar as well as traditionally Catholic Eichsfeld in Thuringia . The newly formed left-populist party Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance also attracted a significant number of voters, with its support also being highest in
6804-530: Was an artificial standard that did not correspond to any traditional spoken dialect. Rather, it was based on the pronunciation of German in Northern Germany, although it was subsequently regarded often as a general prescriptive norm, despite differing pronunciation traditions especially in the Upper-German-speaking regions that still characterise the dialect of the area today – especially
6888-571: Was certainly a high percentage of criminals, but not only that”. The interview was said to have caused a further decline in already strained relations between the AfD and the French National Rally who both sit within the Identity and Democracy group. In response to Krah's statements and allegations of Chinese influence on the AfD, members of the National Rally followed by Italy's Lega and
6972-497: Was elected in 2014 on the Family Party of Germany list, joined the federal association. Gericke left it 15 months afterward for Alliance C – Christians for Germany . In the 2017 federal election , the Free Voters received 1.0% of the national vote (463,292 votes in total). In the 2018 Bavarian state election , the Free Voters won a record 27 seats with 11.6% of the vote, entering into a coalition government as junior partner to
7056-485: Was established on the basis of public speaking in theatres and the media during the 20th century and documented in pronouncing dictionaries. Official revisions of some of the rules from 1901 were not issued until the controversial German orthography reform of 1996 was made the official standard by governments of all German-speaking countries. Media and written works are now almost all produced in Standard German which
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