February 10, 2006: "German spoken here" could have been the theme when Austrian prime minister Wolfgang Schüssel gave his inaugural address to the EU parlament in Strasbourg in mid-January at the start of Austria's six month EU Presidency. Schüssel gave his speech in German, his native language. With one exception, all of the speakers from the other 24 EU countries who responded to Schüssel's speech also spoke in German.

The German language is experiencing a renaissance in Europe not seen since the end of World War II. The language of Goethe and Schiller has always been the most widely spoken native language within the European Union. A recent study on behalf of the European Commission confirmed this fact in the expanded EU with its 25 members. About 19 percent of the EU's 455 million citizens speak German as their first language, well ahead of English and French.

As was expected with the expansion of the EU into eastern Europe, German has now displaced French as the second most widely spoken foreign language within the EU. The extent to which non-German EU citizens can respond to questions asked in German surprises even the German people themselves. According to the EU study, 16 percent of Hungarians speak German as a second language, along with 31 percent of Czechs, 19 percent of the Polish people and 45 percent of the Slovenes. They join their counterparts in older EU countries who speak German as a second language. In Belgium they account for 15 percent of the population, in Finland 24 percent, in Sweden 32 percent, in the Netherlands 65 percent and in Luxembourg 90 percent.

With fluency in three languages required for an EU career, German language institutes all over the EU are experiencing a boom. Among their clients are Polish EU commissioner Danuta Hübner and her Latvian colleague Andris Piebalgs. Of course, there are some who aren't excited about the growing importance of German within the EU. At the European Commission's daily press conferences, there have already been complaints by French journalists – mainly from Paris – when their questions, asked in French, are answered either in German or English. One EU politician was told that his presentation was scandalous when he had not prepared a translation in French for distribution.

Germans may be impressed by the statistics on the use of their language within the EU, but many are more concerned about making sure that German is spoken in Germany. "Forced Germanization" and "language terrorism" were terms used recently to describe a middle school in Berlin where speaking German on the playground during recess and lunch has been made a requirement. 281 of the 366 pupils at Berlin's "Herbert Hoover" school have foreign passports. The decision to enforce the "German only" rule was made jointly by the school's teachers and the parents of the pupils.

While liberal groups and some Turkish associations criticized the rule, the reaction of the pupils has been overwhelmingly positive. "The teachers aren't doing this to aggravate us," one 15 year old girl of Arab descent said. Her friend agreed: "I want to do an apprenticeship to become an electrician. If I can't speak German, I can forget it." Her viewpoint reflects the current situation in Berlin, where 25 percent of Turkish children never finish school. As a result, drugs and crime are the only venue open to many of them.

The example set by the Berlin school has led to calls for national implementation of the "German only" rule. The conservative daily "Die Welt" responded to criticism of the rule with an editorial: "It is daily practice at German schools for different languages to be used. The supplemental instruction offered in various native languages, as required in many federal states, has contributed in large measure to this situation. It is considered to be a sign of openness and tolerance – even if it produces students who are illiterate in two cultures ... Language is the door to the world and language proficiency the key to everything else. Since we live in Germany, that language is German" (January 25, 2006).

Where is the German language spoken in today's Europe? You might be surprised! Read more »