FREE GERMAN: BIOGRAPHY OF A PDF

Ruth H. Sanders | 248 pages | 20 Aug 2010 | Oxford University Press Inc | 9780195388459 | English | , German: Biography of a Language by Ruth H. Sanders

It is the most German: Biography of a Language spoken and official or co- in , AustriaSwitzerlandSouth Tyrol in , the German-speaking Community of Belgiumand . It is one of the three official of and a co-official language in the in . It German: Biography of a Language contains close similarities in vocabulary to DanishNorwegian and Swedishalthough they belong to the North Germanic group. German is the second most widely spoken Germanic languageafter English. German is the third most commonly spoken foreign language in the EU after English German: Biography of a Language French, making it the second biggest language in the EU in terms of overall speakers. German is also the second most widely taught foreign language in the EU after English at primary school level but third after English and French at lower secondary levelthe fourth most widely taught non- in the US after SpanishFrench and American Sign Languagethe second most commonly used scientific language German: Biography of a Language the third most widely used language on websites after English and Russian. 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 the world being published in German. German is an inflected languagewith four cases for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives nominative, accusative, German: Biography of a Language, dative ; three genders masculine, feminine, neuter ; and two numbers singular, . It also has strong and weak verbs. It derives the majority of its vocabulary from the ancient Germanic German: Biography of a Language of the Indo-European . Some of its vocabulary is derived from and Greek German: Biography of a Language, and fewer words are borrowed from French and Modern English. German is a pluricentric languagewith its standardized variants being GermanAustrianand Swiss . It is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialectswith many varieties existing in and other parts of the world. Italy recognizes all the German-speaking minorities in its territory as national historic minorities and protects the varieties of German spoken in several regions of Northern Italy besides . Due to the limited intelligibility between certain varieties and Standard Germanas well as the lack of an undisputed, scientific distinction between a "" and a "language", some German varieties or dialect groups e. or Plautdietsch can be described as either "languages" or "". The first of these branches survives in modern DanishSwedishNorwegianFaroeseand Icelandicall of which are descended from . The East are now extinct, and Gothic is the only language in this branch which survives in written texts. The , however, have undergone extensive dialectal subdivision and are now represented in modern languages such as English, German, DutchYiddishAfrikaansand others. The various regional dialects spoken south of these lines are grouped as High nos. This classification indicates their historical descent from dialects spoken by the Irminones also known as the groupIngvaeones or groupand Istvaeones or Weser- Rhine group. German is therefore closely related to the other German: Biography of a Language based on High German dialects, such as based on Central Franconian dialects — no. Also closely related to Standard German are the dialects spoken in the southern German-speaking countriessuch as Alemannic dialects — no. After these High German dialects, standard German is less closely related to languages based on dialects e. 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. German: Biography of a Language Anglo-Frisian dialects are all members of the Ingvaeonic family of West Germanic languages, which did not take part in the High German consonant shift. The history of the begins with the German: Biography of a Language German consonant shift during the migration periodwhich separated dialects from . This sound shift involved a drastic change German: Biography of a Language the pronunciation of both voiced and voiceless stop consonants bdgand ptkrespectively. The primary effects of the shift were the following below. While there is written evidence of the Old High German language in several inscriptions from as early as the sixth century AD such as the Pforzen bucklethe Old High German period is generally seen as beginning with the Abrogans written c. After the Abrogansthe first coherent works written in Old High German appear in the ninth century, chief among them being the Muspillithe Merseburg Charmsand the Hildebrandsliedand other religious texts the Georgsliedthe Ludwigsliedthe Evangelienbuchand translated hymns and prayers. Of particular interest to scholars, however, has been the Hildebrandslieda secular epic poem telling the tale of an estranged father and son unknowingly meeting each other in battle. Linguistically this German: Biography of a Language 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 the AlamanniGerman: Biography of a Languageand Thuringian groups, all belonging to the Elbe Germanic group Irminoneswhich had settled in what is now southern-central Germany and between the second and sixth centuries during the great migration. In general, the surviving texts of 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 a result, the surviving texts are written in highly disparate regional dialects and exhibit significant Latin influence, particularly in vocabulary. The German language through the OHG period was still predominantly a spoken language, with a wide range of dialects and a much more extensive oral tradition than a written one. Having just emerged from the High German consonant shift, OHG was also a relatively new and volatile language still undergoing a number of phoneticphonologicalmorphologicaland syntactic changes. The scarcity of written work, instability of the language, and widespread illiteracy of the time explain the lack of standardization up to the end of the OHG period in While there is no complete agreement over the dates of the MHG period, it is generally seen as lasting from to 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 the . With the German: Biography of a Language wealth and geographic spread of the Germanic groups came greater use of German in the courts of nobles as the of official proceedings and literature. While these efforts were still regionally bound, German began to be used in place of Latin for certain official purposes, leading to a greater need for regularity in written conventions. While the major changes of the MHG period were socio-cultural, German was still undergoing significant linguistic changes in syntax, phonetics, and morphology as well e. A great wealth of texts survives from the MHG period. Significantly, these texts include a number of impressive secular works, such as the Nibelungenliedan epic poem telling the story of the dragon -slayer Siegfried c. Also noteworthy is the Sachsenspiegelthe first book of laws written in c. 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. While these states were still under the control of the Holy Roman Empireand 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 the German states; the invention of the printing press c. 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. One of the central events in the development of ENHG was the publication of Luther's translation of the Bible into German the New Testament was published in ; the Old Testament was published in parts and completed in 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 German: Biography of a Language 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. But tell me is this talking German? What German understands such stuff? With Luther's rendering of the Bible in the vernacular, German asserted German: Biography of a Language against the dominance of Latin as a legitimate language for courtly, literary, and now ecclesiastical subject-matter. Furthermore, his Bible was ubiquitous in the German states: nearly every household possessed a copy. German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empirewhich encompassed a large area of Central and German: Biography of a Language Europe. Until the mid-nineteenth century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire. Its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. German: Prag and Budapest BudaGerman: Ofento name two examples, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain, others like Pozsony German: Pressburgnow Bratislavawere originally settled during the Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time. This dictionary was created by the Brothers Grimmand is composed of 16 parts which were issued between and Ingrammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. Inthe 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a complete standardization of the German language in its written form, and the Duden Handbook was declared its standard definition. In Northern Germany, Standard 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 Standard German was a written language, not identical to any spoken dialect, throughout the German-speaking area until well into the 19th century. Official revisions of some of the rules from were not issued until the controversial German reform of was made the official standard by governments of all German-speaking countries. Approximate distribution of native German speakers assuming a rounded total of 95 million worldwide. Due to the as German: Biography of a Language as German being the second most widely spoken language in Europe and the third most widely taught foreign language in the US, [23] and the EU in upper secondary education[24] amongst others, the geographical distribution of German speakers or "Germanophones" spans all inhabited continents. As for the number of speakers of any language worldwide, an assessment is always compromised by the lack of sufficient, reliable data. In Europe, German is the second most widely spoken mother tongue after Russian and the second biggest language in terms of overall speakers after English. The area in where the majority of the population speaks German as German: Biography of a Language first language and has German as a co- official language is called the "German Sprachraum ". It comprises an estimated 88 million native speakers and 10 million who speak German as a second language e. 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. In , the High German varieties of Alsatian and Moselle Franconian are identified as " regional languages ", but the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages of has not yet been ratified by the government. was a colony of the from to Mostly descending from German settlers who immigrated during this time, 25—30, people still speak German as a native tongue today. Although it is nearly extinct today, some older Namibians German: Biography of a Language have some knowledge of it. German, along with English and Afrikaanswas a co-official language of Namibia from until its independence from in At this point, the Namibian government perceived and German as symbols of apartheid and colonialism, and decided German: Biography of a Language would be the sole official language, stating that it was a "neutral" language as there were virtually no English native speakers in Namibia at that time. Today, German is used in a wide variety of spheres, especially business and tourism, as well as the churches most notably the German-speaking Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia GELKschools e. Hoffmannradio the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation produces radio programs in Germanand music e. The Allgemeine Zeitung is one of the three biggest newspapers in Namibia and the only German-language daily in Africa. Mostly originating from different waves of immigration during the 19th and 20th centuries, an estimated 12, people speak German German: Biography of a Language a German: Biography of a Language variety as a first language in South Africa. The South African constitution identifies German German: Biography of a Language a "commonly used" language and the Pan South African Language Board is obligated to promote and ensure respect for it. In the United States, the states of North Dakota and South Dakota are the only states where German is the most common language spoken at home after English. The impact of nineteenth century German immigration to southern was such that Valdivia was for a while a Spanish-German bilingual city with "German signboards and placards alongside the Spanish". In , the state of experienced a pronounced wave of immigration in the s from particularly the region. With the prolonged isolation from other German speakers and contact with Australian Englisha unique dialect known as developed, spoken predominantly in the near Adelaide. Usage of German sharply declined with the advent of World War Idue to the prevailing anti-German sentiment in the population and related government action. It continued to be used as a first language into the 20th century, but its use is now limited to a few older speakers. German migration to German: Biography of a Language Zealand in the 19th century was less pronounced than German: Biography of a Language from Britain, Ireland, and perhaps even . Despite this there were significant pockets of German-speaking communities which lasted until the first decades of the 20th century. German speakers settled principally in PuhoiNelsonand Gore. At the last census36, people in spoke German, making it the third most spoken European language after English and French and overall the ninth most spoken language. There is also an important German creole being German: Biography of a Language and recovered, named Unserdeutschspoken in the former German colony of German New Guineaacross Micronesia and in northern Australia i. German Wikipedia - Wikipedia

The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about million people [nb 1] mainly in EuropeNorth AmericaOceania and Southern Africa. The most widely spoken Germanic language, Englishis the world's most widely spoken language with an estimated 2 billion speakers. The West Germanic languages include the three most widely spoken Germanic languages: English with around — million native speakers; [3] [nb 2] Germanwith over million native speakers; [4] and Dutchwith 24 million native speakers. Other West Germanic languages include Afrikaansan offshoot of Dutch, with over 7. Other are Faroese and Icelandicwhich are more conservative languages with no significant Low German influence, more complex grammar and limited mutual intelligibility with the others today. The last to die off was Crimean Gothicspoken until the late 18th century in some isolated areas of . Some of the West Germanic languages also did not survive past the , including Lombardic. As a result of World War II and subsequent mass expulsion of Germansthe German language suffered a significant loss of Sprachraumas well as moribundity and extinction of several of its dialects. In the 21st century, its dialects are dying out [nb 3] due to Standard German gaining primacy. The common ancestor of all of the languages in this branch is called Proto-Germanicalso known as Common Germanic, which was spoken in about the middle of the 1st millennium BC in Iron Age Scandinavia. Proto-Germanic, along with all of its descendants, notably has a number of unique linguistic features, most famously the consonant change known as " Grimm's law. LuciaGrenadaBarbadosSt. Furthermore, it is the de facto language of the United Kingdomthe United States and Australiaas well as a recognized language in [14] and . -speakers make up the majority of all native Germanic speakers, including also making up the bulk of West Germanic speakers. German also continues to be spoken as a minority language by immigrant communities in North America, South America, , and Australia. A German dialect, Germanis still used among various populations in the American state of Pennsylvania in daily life. Today, it is only used by older or traditionally educated people. Dutch was until an official language in South Africa but evolved in and was replaced by Afrikaansa partially mutually intelligible [16] daughter language of Dutch. Afrikaans is one of the 11 official languages in South Africa and is a lingua franca of Namibia. It is used in other Southern African nations, as well. Low German is a collection of very diverse dialects spoken in the northeast of the and northern Germany. Scots is spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster where the local dialect is known as Ulster Scots. Frisian is spoken among half a million people who live on the southern fringes of the North Sea in the Netherlands, Germany, and . Luxembourgish is a Moselle Franconian dialect that is spoken mainly in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourgwhere it is considered to be an official language. , once a native language of some 11 to 13 million people, remains in use by some 1. varieties are spoken in the and Rhineland regions, along the Dutch—Belgian—German border. In addition to being the official language in SwedenSwedish is also spoken natively by the Swedish-speaking minority in , which is a large part of the population along the coast of western and southern Finland. Swedish is also spoken by some German: Biography of a Language in . Danish is an official language of Denmark and in its overseas territory of the Faroe Islandsand it is a lingua franca and language of education in its other overseas territory of Greenlandwhere it was one of the official languages until Danish, a locally recognized minority language, is also natively spoken by the Danish minority in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. Norwegian is the official language of . Norwegian is also the official language in the overseas territories of Norway such as SvalbardJan MayenBouvet islandQueen Maud land and Peter 1 island. Icelandic German: Biography of a Language the official language of . Faroese is the official language of the Faroe Islandsand it is also spoken by some people in Denmark. Germanic languages by share West Germanic in yellow-red shades and North Germanic in blue shades : [nb 4]. German: Biography of a Language Germanic languages are thought to be descended from a hypothetical Proto-Germanicunited by subjection to the sound shifts of Grimm's law and German: Biography of a Language law. Proto-Germanic itself was likely spoken after c. From the time of their earliest attestation, the Germanic varieties are divided into three groups: WestEastand North Germanic. Their exact relation is difficult to determine from the German: Biography of a Language evidence of runic inscriptions. The western group would have formed in German: Biography of a Language late Jastorf cultureand the eastern group may be derived from German: Biography of a Language 1st-century variety of Gotlandleaving southern as the original location of the northern group. The earliest period of Elder Futhark 2nd to 4th centuries predates the division in regional script variants, and linguistically essentially still reflect the Common Germanic stage. The Vimose inscriptions include some of the oldest datable Germanic inscriptions, starting in c. The earliest coherent Germanic text preserved is the 4th-century Gothic translation of the New Testament by Ulfilas. North Germanic is only attested in scattered runic inscriptions, as Proto-Norseuntil it evolves into Old Norse by German: Biography of a Language By about the 10th century, the varieties had diverged enough to make inter-comprehensibility difficult. The linguistic contact of the Viking settlers of the Danelaw with the Anglo- left traces in the English language and is suspected to have facilitated the collapse of grammar that resulted in from the 12th century. The were marginalized from the end of the Migration Period. The BurgundiansGothsand became linguistically assimilated by their respective neighbors by about the 7th century, with only lingering on until the 18th century. During the early Middle German: Biography of a Language, the West Germanic languages were separated by the insular development of Middle English on one hand and by the High German consonant shift on the continent on the other, resulting in Upper German and Low Saxonwith graded intermediate varieties. By early modern times, the span had extended into considerable differences, ranging from Highest Alemannic in the South to German: Biography of a Language Low Saxon in the North, and, although both extremes are considered German, they are hardly mutually intelligible. The southernmost varieties had completed the second sound shift, German: Biography of a Language the northern varieties remained unaffected by the consonant shift. The North Germanic languages, on the other hand, remained unified until well past AD, and in fact the mainland Scandinavian languages still largely retain mutual intelligibility into modern times. The main split in these languages is between the mainland languages and the island languages to the west, especially Icelandicwhich has maintained the grammar of Old Norse virtually unchanged, while the mainland languages German: Biography of a Language diverged greatly. Germanic languages possess a number of defining features compared with other Indo-European languages. Note that some of the above characteristics were not present in Proto-Germanic but developed later as areal features that spread from language to language:. Roughly speaking, Germanic languages differ in how conservative or how progressive each language is with respect to an overall trend toward analyticity. Some, such as Icelandic and, to a lesser extent, German, have preserved much of the complex inflectional morphology inherited from Proto-Germanic and in turn from Proto-Indo-European. Others, such as English, Swedishand Afrikaanshave moved toward a largely analytic type. The subgroupings of the Germanic languages are defined by shared innovations. It is important to distinguish innovations from cases of linguistic conservatism. That is, if two languages in a family German: Biography of a Language a characteristic that is not observed in a third language, that is evidence of common ancestry of the two languages only if the characteristic is an innovation compared to the family's proto-language. The following innovations are common to the languages all but Gothic :. The following innovations are also common to the Northwest Germanic languages but represent areal changes :. The following innovations are common to the West Germanic languages :. The following innovations are common to the Ingvaeonic subgroup of the West Germanic languageswhich includes English, Frisian, and in a few cases Dutch and German: Biography of a Language German, but not High German:. The following innovations are common to the Anglo-Frisian subgroup of the Ingvaeonic languages :. The oldest Germanic languages all share a number of features, which are assumed to be inherited from Proto-Germanic. Proto-Germanic had no front rounded vowelsbut all Germanic languages except for Gothic subsequently developed them through the process of i-umlaut. Proto-Germanic developed a strong stress accent on the first syllable of the root, but remnants of the original free PIE accent are visible due to Verner's Law, which was sensitive to this accent. That caused a steady erosion of in unstressed syllables. This ultimately resulted in some languages like Modern English losing practically all vowels following the main stress and the consequent rise of a very large number of monosyllabic words. The following table shows the main outcomes of Proto-Germanic vowels and consonants in the various older languages. For vowels, only German: Biography of a Language outcomes in stressed syllables are shown. Outcomes in unstressed syllables are quite different, vary from language to language and depend on a number of other factors such as whether the syllable was medial or final, whether the syllable was open or closed and in some cases whether the preceding syllable was light or heavy. The oldest Germanic languages have the typical complex inflected morphology of old Indo-European languageswith four or five noun cases; verbs marked for person, number, tense and mood; multiple noun and verb classes; few or no articles; and rather free word order. There were three moods: indicative, subjunctive developed from the PIE optative mood German: Biography of a Language imperative. Gothic verbs had a number of archaic features inherited from PIE that were lost in the other Germanic languages German: Biography of a Language few traces, including dual endings, an inflected passive derived from the PIE mediopassive voiceand a class of verbs with reduplication in the past tense derived from the PIE perfect. The complex tense system of modern English e. In three months, the house will still be being built or If you had German: Biography of a Language acted so stupidly, we would never have been caught is almost entirely due to subsequent developments although German: Biography of a Language in many of the other Germanic languages. Note that most modern Germanic languages have lost most of the inherited inflectional morphology as a result of the steady attrition of unstressed endings triggered by the strong initial stress. Contrast, for example, the Balto-Slavic languageswhich have largely kept the Indo-European pitch accent and consequently preserved much of the inherited morphology. Icelandic and to a lesser extent modern German best preserve the Proto—Germanic inflectional system, with four noun cases, German: Biography of a Language genders, and well-marked verbs. English and Afrikaans are at the other extreme, with almost no remaining inflectional morphology. Originally, adjectives in Proto-Indo-European followed the same declensional classes as nouns. A quite different set of "pronominal" endings was used for pronouns, determinersand words with related semantics e. An important innovation in Proto-Germanic was the development of two German: Biography of a Language sets of adjective endings, originally corresponding to a distinction between indefinite semantics "a man" and definite semantics "the man". Definite adjectives, however, had endings based on n -stem nouns. Originally both types of adjectives could be used by themselves, but already by Proto-Germanic times a pattern evolved whereby definite adjectives had to be accompanied by a determiner with definite semantics e. In the 19th century, German: Biography of a Language two types of adjectives — indefinite and definite — were respectively termed "strong" and "weak", names which are still commonly used. These names were based on the appearance of the two sets of endings in modern German. In German, the distinctive case endings formerly present on nouns have largely disappeared, German: Biography of a Language the result that the load of distinguishing one case from another is German: Biography of a Language entirely carried by determiners and adjectives. As a result, the definite endings were thought of as too "weak" to carry inflectional meaning and in need of "strengthening" by the presence of an accompanying determiner, while the indefinite endings were viewed as "strong" enough to indicate the inflectional German: Biography of a Language even when standing alone. However, in Proto-Germanic — and still in Gothicthe most conservative Germanic language — the terms "strong" and "weak" are not clearly appropriate. For one , there were a large number of noun . Originally the n -stem was not a single declension but a set of separate declensions e. Although it is possible to group the various noun declensions into three basic categories — -stem, n -stem, and other- consonant-stem a. It is only in later languages that the binary distinction between "strong" German: Biography of a Language "weak" nouns become more relevant. As a result, newer grammatical descriptions of the Germanic languages often avoid the terms "strong" and "weak" except in conjunction with German itself, preferring instead to use the terms "indefinite" and "definite" for adjectives and to distinguish nouns by their actual stem class. In English, both two sets of adjective endings were lost entirely in the late Middle English period. German language - Wikipedia The has been shaped by major intellectual and popular currents in Europe, both religious and secular. Historically, Germany has been called Das Land der Dichter und Denker the country of poets and thinkers. There are a number of public holidays in Germany. The country is particularly known for its celebrations in Munichits carnival culture and globally influential Christmas customs known as Weihnachten. Germany was the world's second most respected nation among 50 countries in German is the official and predominant spoken language in Germany. Standard German is a West Germanic language and is closely related to and classified alongside English, Dutch, and the . To a lesser extent, it is also related to the East extinct and North Germanic languages. Most German vocabulary is derived from the Germanic branch German: Biography of a Language the Indo-European language family. German is written using the Latin alphabet. has gone through a series of reforms, the most recent in German dialects are distinguished from varieties of standard German. Many of them are not easily understandable to a speaker of standard German, since they often differ in lexiconphonologyand syntax. In the German diasporaaspects of German culture are passed on to younger generations through naming customs and through the use of spoken and written German. The Goethe Institute seeks to spread the knowledge of German culture worldwide. can be traced back to the Middle Ageswith the most notable authors of the period being Walther von der Vogelweide and Wolfram von Eschenbach. The Nibelungenliedwhose author remains unknown, is also an important work of the epoch, as is the Thidrekssaga. The fairy tales collections collected and German: Biography of a Language by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm in the 19th century became famous throughout the world. Theologian Lutherwho translated the Bible into German, is widely credited for having set the basis for the modern "High German" language. The rise of the modern natural sciences and the related decline of religion raised a series of questions, which recur throughout German philosophy, concerning the relationships between knowledge and faith, reason and emotion, and scientific, ethical, and artistic ways of seeing the world. German philosophers have helped shape western philosophy from as early as the Albertus Magnus. Later, Leibniz 17th German: Biography of a Language and most importantly Kant played central roles in the history of philosophy. Kantianism inspired the work of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche as well as German idealism defended by Fichte and Hegel. Marx and Engels developed communist theory in the German: Biography of a Language half of the 19th century German: Biography of a Language Heidegger and Gadamer pursued the tradition of German philosophy in the 20th century. The University of Berlin founded in by linguist and philosopher Wilhelm von Humboldt served as an influential model for a number of modern western universities. In the 21st century Germany has been an important country for the development of contemporary analytic philosophy in continental Europe, along with France, Austria, and the Scandinavian countries. In the field of music, Germany claims some of the most renowned classical composers of the world, including Bach and Beethovenwho marked the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western classical music. Also, developed many Lutheran chorales and hymns. Germany is the largest music market in Europe, and third largest in the world. German musicians, and particularly the pioneering bands Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerkhave also contributed to the development of electronic music. A global trendsetter is the German Minimal and Techno scene e. Germany hosts many large rock music festivals every year. The Rock am Ring festival is the largest music festival in Germany, and among the largest in the world. Germany hosts German: Biography of a Language of the largest Goth scenes and festivals in the entire world, with events like Wave-Gotik-Treffen and M'era Luna Festival attracting up to 30, people. In addition, the country hosts Wacken Open Airthe biggest heavy metal open air festival in the world. Since aboutGermany has once again had a thriving popular culture, now increasingly led by its reinstated capital Berlinand a self-confident music and art scene. Germany is also very well known for its many renowned opera housessuch as SemperoperKomische Oper Berlin and Munich State Theatre. Richard Wagner established the Bayreuth Festspielhaus. One of the most famous German: Biography of a Language of the international film business is Hans Zimmer. German cinema dates back to the very early years of the medium with the work of Max Skladanowsky. Austrian-based director Fritz Langwho became a German citizen in and whose career flourished in the pre-war German film industry, is said to have been a major influence on Hollywood German: Biography of a Language. His silent movie Metropolis is referred to as the birth of modern Science Fiction movies. Founded inthe Babelsberg Film Studio is the oldest large- scale film studio in the world. InJosef von Sternberg directed The Blue Angelwhich was the first major German sound film and it brought world fame to actress Marlene Dietrich. The Nazi era produced mostly propaganda films although the work of Leni German: Biography of a Language still introduced new aesthetics to film. More recently, films such as Good Bye Lenin! The Berlin Film Festival German: Biography of a Language, held annually sinceis one of the world's foremost film festivals. An international jury places emphasis on representing films from all over the world and awards the winners with the Golden and Silver Bears. The Babelsberg Studios in Potsdam are the oldest large-scale film studios in the world and a centre for international film production. Germany's television market is the largest in Europe, with 34, TV households. The many regional and national public German: Biography of a Language are organised in line with the federal political structure. The German-speaking book publishers produce about , copies of books every year, with about 80, titles, nearly 60, of them German: Biography of a Language publications. Germany is in third place on international statistics after the English-speaking book market and the People's Republic of China. Many of Europe's best-selling newspapers and magazines are produced in Germany. The Bild is a tabloid and has the largest German: Biography of a Language of all German papers. Architectural contributions from Germany include the Carolingian and Ottonian stylesimportant precursors of Romanesque. The region [ clarification needed ] has also produced significant works in styles such as the GothicRenaissance and Baroque. The nation was particularly important in the early modern movement through the Deutscher German: Biography of a Language and the Bauhaus movement identified with Walter Gropius. The Nazis closed these movements and favoured a type of neo-classicism. Since World War II post- modern structures have been built. Since the reunification of Germany the trend has continued. German art has a long and distinguished tradition in the visual arts German: Biography of a Language, from the earliest known work of figurative art to its current output of contemporary art. Within modern day society, contemporary art is a large aspect of the culture. This large community draws in people from all around the world. There are around galleries in Germany that caters to this modern form of art. The north and east are predominantly Protestant, the south and west predominantly Catholic. Nowadays there is a non-religious majority in Hamburg and the former East German states. During the Kulturkampf from about to the government opposed the Catholic church. Historically, Germany had a substantial Jewish population. Germany also has a substantial Muslim minority, most of whom are from Turkey. Germany has been the home of many famous inventors and engineerssuch as Johannes Gutenbergwho is credited with the invention of movable type printing in Europe; Hans Geigerthe creator of the Geiger counter ; and Konrad Zusewho built the first computer. Germany is home to some of the finest academic centers in Europe. German German: Biography of a Language were leaders of modern product designwith the Bauhaus designers like Mies German: Biography of a Language der Roheand Dieter Rams of Braun being essential. Germany is a leading country in the fashion industry. The German textile industry consisted of about 1, companies with more thanemployees inwhich generated a revenue of 28 billion Euro. Almost 44 percent of the products are exported. The textile branch thus is the second largest producer of consumer goods after food production in the country. German cuisine varies from region to region. The southern regions of Bavaria and Swabia, for instance, share a culinary culture with Switzerland and Austria. Pork, beef, and poultry are the main varieties of meat consumed in Germany; pork is the most popular. More than 1, different types of sausage are produced in Germany. Organic food has gained a market share of around 3. A popular German saying has the meaning: "Breakfast like an emperor, lunch like a king, and dine like a beggar. Cereals or muesli with milk or yoghurt is less common but widespread. As a country with many immigrants, Germany has adopted many international dishes into its cuisine and daily eating habits. International burger chains, as well as Chinese and Greek restaurants, are widespread. IndianThaiJapaneseand other Asian cuisines have gained popularity in recent decades. Among high-profile restaurants in Germany, the Michelin guide has awarded nine German: Biography of a Language three stars, the highest designation, while 15 more received two stars. Although German wine is becoming more popular in many parts of Germany, the national alcoholic drink is . German beer consumption per person is declining but—at litres annually—it is still among the highest in the world. Among 18 surveyed western countries, Germany ranked 14th in the list of per capita consumption of soft drinks in general, while it ranked third in the consumption of fruit juices. Germany is filled with inventors of board games, also known as Eurogamesthat are played around the world. Popular games include The Settlers of Catanwhich features hexagonal resource tiles that generate resources according to the roll of two dice, and Carcassonne with its randomly drawn square tiles that eventually make a medieval map and its notability for its meeples. InGermany imported the popular card game Dominion from the US. Today, Germany publishes more board games than any other country per capita. The German video gaming market is one of the largest in the German: Biography of a Language. Sport forms an integral part of German life. Other popular spectator sports include handballvolleyballbasketballice hockeyand tennis. Germany is one of the leading motorsports countries in the world.