German is spoken by over 100 million speakers throughout Germany, Austria and Switzerland. German is also an important second language for commerce and communication in many parts of Eastern Europe and areas in the Americas.

The history of German language begins with inscriptions from the 6th century. The oldest texts date back to the 9th century.

When Martin Luther translated the Bible in the 1530's, a standardizing force was created for German, which was the most widely understood language at the time. Then in the mid 18th century a standardized German became the commonly used langauge of commerce and government in the Hapsburg Empire. Some cities, such as Prague and Budapest were gradually Germanised in the years after their incorporation into the Hapsburg empire. Others, such as Bratislava and Zagreb were settled during the Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time. A few cities such as Milan remained primarily non-German.

Until about 1800, standard German was almost only a written language. Prescriptive pronunciation guides used to consider northern German pronunciation to be the standard. However, the actual pronunciation of standard German varies from region to region.

Media and written works are usually produced now in standard German, often called High German or Hochdeutsch, which is understood in almost all areas where German is spoken.

The first dictionary of the Brothers Grimm, published between 1852 and 1860, remains the most comprehensive guide to the words of the German language. In 1860, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, this was declared the standard definition of the German language.

German language has tenses, singular and plurals, and genders. The most noteworthy feature of the langauge is the common use of long compounded words. Also all nouns are capitalized, not just proper nouns.