Ein realistischer Blick auf das Deutsche (nicht nur) als Wissenschaftssprache

During the 19th century German became similar to French and English in its general importance. This position was largely due to the influence of the newly reformed system of education and research in which German speaking countries played an important role. Obviously, things have changed since then, the use of German nowadays reflects its status as a large European language, with the international language being English. This change in status is often seen as a fundamental loss. But, taking into account all the prerequisites and historical developments of the linguistic landscape, German has been rather successful. Arguments for this position – and corresponding facts - are presented in the following paper.