It is also well worth remembering that, before the Nazis, the German language had become the preeminent language of philosophy, mathematics, physics, chemistry, geology, psychology, linguistics, and biology, just to name a few. Between about 1800 and 1933, anyone anywhere in the world who wished to contribute to the advancement of these disciplines had to at least learn to read German, and to this day there are papers from them which have not yet been translated into English, if indeed they ever shall be. The disciplines themselves remain littered with technical terms of German origin which disciples must master (especially geology and linguistics). In other words, the National Socialist project not only ended in the senseless mass murder of millions of people and the punitive mass deportation of millions of German speakers out of Eastern Europe, it also shifted the centre of gravity of the arts and sciences to the United States. Europe will likely never get that back.

That was an amazing and informative overview. Vielen Dank!

2:30 Something important that might also be reasonable to keep in mind is we're using maps, but at this point in time borders aren't strict lines. The area shown on the "Germania" titled map is a region where we can say for a fact this is where Germanic people lived, but that didn't mean there weren't Germanic people outside of this area or still Celtic people overlapping into it. One example showcasing it is that what is dubbed "Gallia" on this map created in 1849 refers to Roman Gallia, which had several subdivisions including what posed the Roman provinces of Germania Inferior and Germania Superior (Upper and Lower Germania) with significant Germanic populations. On the eastern side, the area off Germanic habitation at this specific timestamp of this map extended up to modern-day Moldova where Germanic tribal presence can be inferred (albeit in Moldova a minority of tribes at this timestamp could be identified as Germanic with the rest being overlapping areas of Dacian, Thracian, Celtic and Iranic).

Very interesting Stephan. A video I have long wanted to see made, you did a wonderful job.

Great video, Stephan. One thing I would add is some commentary on the Zollverein, the 19th century customs union that brought Prussia and "Germany" together economically -- excluding Austria -- and kickstarted the Industrial Revolution in the German Confederation. I don't know the linguistic side, but the development of infrastructure during this period probably helped increase a shared sense of German-ness and maybe that carried over into shared patterns of speech. The other thing I might add is how masterful Bismarck was in manufacturing a crisis in which France was seen as the aggressor for the Franco-Prussian War (look up the Ems Dispatch if you're not familiar), so essential to getting other European states to stay on the sidelines and to convincing the west German states that they needed Prussia's protection. Hard to cover everything in 30 minutes, though... Congratulations on covering so much and stimulating some interesting discussion.

As usual, another great video. It would be interesting to see how Bavarian and Schwabian dialects emerged from older High German.

Great video as always ! Thanks for that one... When you explain the origins of "Old High German" at 8:10 I am reminded of the fact that the only Germans I know who speak German without any trace of an accent are those in the Hannover area( where of course Platt is also spoken). To the east, in Brandenburg you already hear a slight accent and in the west (East Westphalia where I live) you already have some influence from the Ruhr area) How did that come about ?

Apologies this is a belated comment to your excellent video. I think you have managed quite a feat there, being simultaneously comprehensive and concise with all you put across in the duration of a short video. Jolly good job indeed! :) I am quite interested in the historical and linguistic intersection of English and German, both being western Germanic languages (along with Dutch, Frisian,..). Yourself, in the past, have uploaded videos looking at the English language's plentiful Germanic features. I recall one of your videos looking at Shakespeare's language and German -- all very interesting. Any way, the main purpose of my post was to tell you there is a little experiment (all available on KZfaq to see and listen, above all listen!) done by one English and three Germans (all are linguist students), whereby the English reads out to the 3 Germans Old English (I think text dating from 5th, 6th c. AD), and then he asks the Germans to see whether (and how much) they have understood. Interestingly (if not mistaken), one of the Germans in the "experiment" is a Frisian dialect speaker, obviously besides being mainstream German speaker. At the start of the experiment, personally, I would have bet that the Frisian gent would have understood a lot of the Old English. I won't spoil it for you by revealing what the experiment reveals. But I have to say, I was quite surprised how today's native German speakers (of course, they are linguistics students, so quite attuned, educated, etc.) understood English vernacular from the 5/6th century. I would humbly suggest, as a native German speaker yourself, that you, too, put on your headphones and listen to the English reading out to the 3 Germans, and how much you can understand. Truly fascinating, I think. The UTube video in question with the experiment is called: "Old English vs German | Can they understand spoken Old English? | Part 1". The UTube channel's called: Ecolinguist. I will separately post the video's URL, but UTube can sometimes automatically delete posts with a URL. They might not do this one, as it is another UTube video. Forgive the length of my post.

Guat!!!

Great video! It would be interesting to hear some more examples of how the language in East Germany differed from that in West Germany. Were there any divergences in grammar as well as vocabulary?

26:20 The Hapsburg lineage didn't cease to exist, but Kaiser Karl I abdicated.

That actually sounded to me like a labour of love! And a labour it was.

We mentioned poetry. Here is one of mine: PLAY BALL Play ball, be as a child, full of the wonders of discovery, adventure, born of life and spirit, carefree, playing as it pleases, enjoying life with heart and soul. Play ball with mind and spirit, with thoughts and dreams, With words, expressions, with knowledge and experience, with the vagaries of life. As with a ball, play with ideas, catch them, throw them out, juggle thoughts and dreams, bounce them around, then catch the rebound, enjoy the game with mind and soul. A.F.Ptak That fits a little what you and your followers are doing.

How did German language change from 1945 to 1989 both East Germany and West Germany

The two great proponents of the German language: Goethe: Die Leiden des jungen Werther... Schiller: Das Lied von der Glocke ( Fest gemauert in der Erden, steht die Form... Nun wer ist der Bessere? Als ich die Leiden las, habe ich mich fast übergeben, denn es ist eine erbärmliche Geschichte. Das Lied von der Glocke war das krasse Gegenteil!