105-679: The Saarbrücken–Trier railway , known in German as the Saarstrecke (literally the "Saar line") in the German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland . It connects Saarbrücken and Trier . It was opened in 1858 and 1860 and is one of the oldest railways in Germany . From Saarbrücken the Saar line was opened along the Saar Valley to Merzig on 16 December 1858 and to Trier West on
210-1156: A D-Zug , a short form of Durchgangszug ("through train"), and express train services were often given numbers preceded by the letter D . The similar term, snälltåg , was used in Sweden until January 1980. On the railway networks operated by the Deutsche Bahn (DB), the Austrian Federal Railway (ÖBB) and the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) today, express trains are divided into categories such as Eurocity , Intercity , Interregio etc. The DB still occasionally runs D-Zug services in night trains ( D-Nacht ), especially those to its eastern European neighbours, and as relief trains. Museum services running on DB routes are also given D-Zug numbers. ÖBB runs D-Züge on main routes from/to Vienna on weekends and during rush hours. The first German express train ran on 1 May 1851 between Berlin and Deutz am Rhein (today part of Cologne ) and completed
315-465: A de facto official language of Namibia after the end of German colonial rule alongside English and Afrikaans , and had de jure co-official status from 1984 until its independence from South Africa in 1990. However, the Namibian government perceived Afrikaans and German as symbols of apartheid and colonialism, and decided English would be the sole official language upon independence, stating that it
420-402: A second language , and 75–100 million as a foreign language . This would imply the existence of approximately 175–220 million German speakers worldwide. German sociolinguist Ulrich Ammon estimated a number of 289 million German foreign language speakers without clarifying the criteria by which he classified a speaker. As of 2012 , about 90 million people, or 16% of
525-612: A "commonly used" language and the Pan South African Language Board is obligated to promote and ensure respect for it. Cameroon was also a colony of the German Empire from the same period (1884 to 1916). However, German was replaced by French and English, the languages of the two successor colonial powers, after its loss in World War I . Nevertheless, since the 21st century, German has become
630-559: A greater need for regularity in written conventions. While the major changes of the MHG period were socio-cultural, High German was still undergoing significant linguistic changes in syntax, phonetics, and morphology as well (e.g. diphthongization of certain vowel sounds: hus (OHG & MHG "house") → haus (regionally in later MHG)→ Haus (NHG), and weakening of unstressed short vowels to schwa [ə]: taga (OHG "days")→ tage (MHG)). A great wealth of texts survives from
735-608: A high supplement. They were therefore only within the reach of a small group of customers. Within Germany, apart from the DB the Cologne-Bonn Railways ran Schnellzüge on its network until 1975. These trains achieved journey times between Cologne and Bonn that were comparable to those of the DB. A D-Zug supplement was payable on these trains. The DB still occasionally runs D-Züge in night services, especially to Germany's eastern European neighbours ( D-Nacht ). Some of
840-429: A higher fare for the first time in order to compensate for the higher crew costs of night-time through trains. Up to 1889 fast train services were given the letter S for Schnellzug (express train, plural: Schnellzüge ) or K for Kurierzug (courier train). From 1889 all such services in Germany were given the standard letter S . From 1892 a new train category with especially comfortable express coaches appeared:
945-519: A large children's play area. The Allgäu between Dortmund and Oberstdorf and the Berchtesgadener Land between Dortmund and Berchtesgaden also incorporated such coaches later on. The demise of FD-Züge came in the early 1990s as more and more IR, IC and ICE trains served the holiday regions. FD-Züge in summer 1983: FD-Züge in summer 1988: The East German Deutsche Reichsbahn has had the train category Ex ( Expresszüge ) since
1050-533: A large role on the Saar line, with trains between Saarbrücken and Saarhölzbach being denser than on the northern section towards Trier. Already in 1989 City-Bahn Saar services operated on the line. This was an hourly service from Saarhölzbach (some starting in Trier) via Merzig, Saarlouis , Völklingen and Saarbrücken to Homburg . These services were reinforced every two-hour by express trains running from Merzig via Saarbrücken to Kaiserslautern , which only stopped on
1155-458: A native tongue today, mostly descendants of German colonial settlers . The period of German colonialism in Namibia also led to the evolution of a Standard German-based pidgin language called " Namibian Black German ", which became a second language for parts of the indigenous population. Although it is nearly extinct today, some older Namibians still have some knowledge of it. German remained
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#17328018126751260-696: A popular foreign language among pupils and students, with 300,000 people learning or speaking German in Cameroon in 2010 and over 230,000 in 2020. Today Cameroon is one of the African countries outside Namibia with the highest number of people learning German. In the United States, German is the fifth most spoken language in terms of native and second language speakers after English, Spanish , French , and Chinese (with figures for Cantonese and Mandarin combined), with over 1 million total speakers. In
1365-483: A result, the surviving texts are written in highly disparate regional dialects and exhibit significant Latin influence, particularly in vocabulary. At this point monasteries, where most written works were produced, were dominated by Latin, and German saw only occasional use in official and ecclesiastical writing. While there is no complete agreement over the dates of the Middle High German (MHG) period, it
1470-645: A section of these trains running to Greifswald . This was complemented by express trains between Koblenz and Saarbrücken at hourly intervals. It was not until 1994, with the completion of the conversion of old rolling stock into the new InterRegio trains, that the D-trains were replaced by InterRegio services. In December 2002, the InterRegio services were all cancelled and the Saarland no longer has any long-distance connections. Regional services has always played
1575-717: Is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family , mainly spoken in Western and Central Europe . It is the most spoken native language within the European Union . It is the most widely spoken and official (or co-official) language in Germany , Austria , Switzerland , Liechtenstein , and the Italian autonomous province of South Tyrol . It is also an official language of Luxembourg , Belgium and
1680-601: Is a recognized minority language in the following countries: In France, the High German varieties of Alsatian and Moselle Franconian are identified as " regional languages ", but the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages of 1998 has not yet been ratified by the government. Namibia also was a colony of the German Empire, from 1884 to 1915. About 30,000 people still speak German as
1785-612: Is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects , with many varieties existing in Europe and other parts of the world. Some of these non-standard varieties have become recognized and protected by regional or national governments. Since 2004, heads of state of the German-speaking countries have met every year, and the Council for German Orthography has been the main international body regulating German orthography . German
1890-558: Is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Germanic group of the Germanic languages . The Germanic languages are traditionally subdivided into three branches: North Germanic , East Germanic , and West Germanic . The first of these branches survives in modern Danish , Swedish , Norwegian , Faroese , and Icelandic , all of which are descended from Old Norse . The East Germanic languages are now extinct, and Gothic
1995-478: Is called the "German Sprachraum ". German is the official language of the following countries: German is a co-official language of the following countries: 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. Within Europe, German
2100-430: Is complicated by the existence of several varieties whose status as separate "languages" or "dialects" is disputed for political and linguistic reasons, including quantitatively strong varieties like certain forms of Alemannic and Low German . With the inclusion or exclusion of certain varieties, it is estimated that approximately 90–95 million people speak German as a first language , 10–25 million speak it as
2205-601: Is electrified at the standard German system of 15 kV, 16.7 Hz . It was proposed in the 1950s to electrify the lines of the Saar with the modern French electrification system of 25 kV, 50 Hz . Instead it was decided to canalise the Moselle between France and Germany. Apart from heavy iron ore trains from the North Sea ports to the Dillinger Hütte steel works and the other steel works in the Saarland, rail freight on
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#17328018126752310-535: Is generally seen as ending when the 1346–53 Black Death decimated Europe's population. Modern High German begins with the Early New High German (ENHG) period, which Wilhelm Scherer dates 1350–1650, terminating with the end of the Thirty Years' War . This period saw the further displacement of Latin by German as the primary language of courtly proceedings and, increasingly, of literature in
2415-611: Is generally seen as lasting from 1050 to 1350. This was a period of significant expansion of the geographical territory occupied by Germanic tribes, and consequently of the number of German speakers. 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
2520-565: Is less closely related to languages based on Low Franconian dialects (e.g., Dutch and Afrikaans), Low German or Low Saxon dialects (spoken in northern Germany and southern Denmark ), neither of which underwent the High German consonant shift. 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. Also related to German are
2625-435: Is one of the major languages of the world . German is the second-most widely spoken Germanic language , after English, both as a first and as a second language . German is also widely taught as a foreign language , especially in continental Europe (where it is the third most taught foreign language after English and French), and in the United States. Overall, German is the fourth most commonly learned second language, and
2730-597: Is one of the three biggest newspapers in Namibia and the only German-language daily in Africa. An estimated 12,000 people speak German or a German variety as a first language in South Africa, mostly originating from different waves of immigration during the 19th and 20th centuries. One of the largest communities consists of the speakers of "Nataler Deutsch", a variety of Low German concentrated in and around Wartburg . The South African constitution identifies German as
2835-401: Is partly derived from Latin and Greek , along with fewer words borrowed from French and Modern English . English, however, is the main source of more recent loanwords . German is a pluricentric language ; the three standardized variants are German , Austrian , and Swiss Standard German . Standard German is sometimes called High German , which refers to its regional origin. German
2940-525: Is the Sachsenspiegel , the first book of laws written in Middle Low German ( c. 1220 ). 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. The Middle High German period
3045-578: Is the only language in this branch which survives in written texts. The West Germanic languages, however, have undergone extensive dialectal subdivision and are now represented in modern languages such as English, German, Dutch , Yiddish , Afrikaans , and others. Within the West Germanic language dialect continuum, the Benrath and Uerdingen lines (running through Düsseldorf - Benrath and Krefeld - Uerdingen , respectively) serve to distinguish
3150-433: Is understood in all areas where German is spoken. Approximate distribution of native German speakers (assuming a rounded total of 95 million) worldwide: As a result of the German diaspora , as well as the popularity of German taught as a foreign language , the geographical distribution of German speakers (or "Germanophones") spans all inhabited continents. However, an exact, global number of native German speakers
3255-689: The Ostsiedlung ). With the increasing wealth and geographic spread of the Germanic groups came greater use of German in the courts of nobles as the standard language of official proceedings and literature. A clear example of this is the mittelhochdeutsche Dichtersprache employed in the Hohenstaufen court in Swabia as a standardized supra-dialectal written language. While these efforts were still regionally bound, German began to be used in place of Latin for certain official purposes, leading to
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3360-478: The Durchgangszug or D-Zug (plural: D-Züge ). Originally these were trains in which one could walk right through from end to end by means of bellows-type corridor connectors between coaches and side corridors or centre aisles within coaches, unlike the hitherto usual compartment coaches with doors on each side of the compartment, but no access to the next coach. The first D-Züge ran on 1 May 1892 on
3465-644: The Rheinpfeil ( Dortmund to Munich ) were both initially classed as F-Zug services between 1962 and 1965, before they were upgraded to the TEE category. The City-D-Zug ( DC ) was introduced by the Deutsche Bundesbahn in its 1973 summer timetable. These trains were supposed to connect three times a day to the economic centres linked by the IC network, as feeder trains to that railway system. However
3570-639: The Alamanni , Bavarian, and Thuringian groups, all belonging to the Elbe Germanic group ( Irminones ), which had settled in what is now southern-central Germany and Austria between the second and sixth centuries, during the great migration. In general, the surviving texts of Old High German (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
3675-543: The Deutsche Bundesbahn procured D-Zug coaches of the later UIC type X . Coaches of similar design were ordered by the ÖBB in 1957 and the SBB in 1969. On 1 January 1968 the Deutsche Bundesbahn abolished the supplementary fare for D-Zug services for journeys over 80 kilometres and, from 1979, for journeys over 50 kilometres. The demand for D-Zug links steadily reduced from 1979. In the 1982 summer timetable
3780-537: The Early Middle Ages . German is an inflected language , with four cases for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative); three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) and two numbers (singular, plural). It has strong and weak verbs . The majority of its vocabulary derives from the ancient Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, while a smaller share
3885-629: The Eurofima project with its standard, high-comfort coaches ( Eurofima-Wagen ) for six European countries. In 1978 the DB axed this train category. Many trains continued to run on as normal D-Züge , several of them being integrated into the Interregio network 10–15 years later (e.g. the Emden–Münster–Hagen–Gießen–Frankfurt/Main service). The FernExpress was a train type with 1st and 2nd class passenger classes and
3990-417: The European Union 's population, spoke German as their mother tongue, making it the second most widely spoken language on the continent after Russian and the second biggest language in terms of overall speakers (after English), as well as the most spoken native language. The area in central Europe where the majority of the population speaks German as a first language and has German as a (co-)official language
4095-522: The German states . While these states were still part of the Holy Roman Empire , and 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
4200-746: The Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I , and the other being Meißner Deutsch , used in the Electorate of Saxony in the Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg . 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. The greater ease of production and increased availability of written texts brought about increased standardisation in
4305-783: The ICE , the Intercity and the Interregio trains (whose original designation during the planning phase was XD ), the latter having been replaced meanwhile in Germany by Intercity services. The first luxury express train was the Orient Express which ran for the first time on 5 June 1883 from Paris to Vienna. It was followed on 9 May 1896 by the Nord Express from Paris to Saint Petersburg . These expresses only had first class accommodation, and could only be used on payment of
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4410-666: The Old High German language in several Elder Futhark inscriptions from as early as the sixth century AD (such as the Pforzen buckle ), the Old High German period is generally seen as beginning with the Abrogans (written c. 765–775 ), a Latin-German glossary supplying over 3,000 Old High German words with their Latin equivalents. After the Abrogans , the first coherent works written in Old High German appear in
4515-706: The SBB RABDe 500 class. Until its demise on 9 June 2007 the Diretto in Italy was one of the most important categories, filling the gap between local and long-distance traffic. The Diretto had the role of travelling directly from A to B, but served medium-sized stations (unlike the InterCity ). The Diretto can be compared to the Austrian Regionalexpress (REX) services. In former years there
4620-650: The Second World War a new train type, the so-called Schnellzug für Fronturlauber ("military express train", literally the "express train for those on leave from the front") or SF-Zug was created. These expresses took the shortest route between the Wehrmacht 's operational theatres (including France, Greece and the Soviet Union) and the Deutsche Reich . Some SF-Zug services were open to
4725-676: The Sprachraum in Europe. German is used in a wide variety of spheres throughout the country, especially in business, tourism, and public signage, as well as in education, churches (most notably the German-speaking Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (GELK) ), other cultural spheres such as music, and media (such as German language radio programs by the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation ). The Allgemeine Zeitung
4830-550: The Standard German language in its written form, and the Duden Handbook was declared its standard definition. Punctuation and compound spelling (joined or isolated compounds) were not standardized in the process. The Deutsche Bühnensprache ( lit. ' German stage language ' ) by Theodor Siebs had established conventions for German pronunciation in theatres , three years earlier; however, this
4935-513: The Upper German dialects spoken in the southern German-speaking countries , such as Swiss German ( Alemannic dialects ) and the various Germanic dialects spoken in the French region of Grand Est , such as Alsatian (mainly Alemannic, but also Central–and Upper Franconian dialects) and Lorraine Franconian (Central Franconian). After these High German dialects, standard German
5040-401: The Wehrmacht reserved several coaches for its own use. On 23 January 1945 all express train services in Germany were suspended. Only international trains from Berlin to Copenhagen and Prague continued to run until April 1945. On 22 September 1945 the first express trains to run after the end of the war worked in the US zone between Frankfurt am Main and Munich . As early as 1952
5145-408: The pagan Germanic tradition. Of particular interest to scholars, however, has been the Hildebrandslied , a secular epic poem telling the tale of an estranged father and son unknowingly meeting each other in battle. Linguistically, this text 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
5250-488: The (new) 1st class. The trains always included a dining car or coach with a buffet section that was managed by the DSG . To begin with, on the Rhine railway, some trains were combined in up to four sets and operated using pre-war VT 04 and VT 06 and the new post-war VT 08 diesel multiple units . As well as DMUs, locomotive-hauled trains of 3 to 5 pre-war coaches were also used. These were steel-bodied, standard coaches ( Einheitswagen ) of various types. The interiors of
5355-448: The 1950s. These were express trains with few stops, similar to the DB's F-Zug services, but offering both 1st and 2nd class. An Expresszug supplement was payable in addition to the Schnellzug fare. After it had disappeared during the 1960s in domestic services, it was re-introduced in the 1969/70 timetable with the arrival of the DR Class VT 18.16 express DMUs. Ex-Züge in the DR in 1972: The international trains were converted in
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#17328018126755460-402: The Eifel Railway. This project failed because of technical problems, so that RE services continue to run between Saarbrücken and Koblenz ( Mosel-Saar-Express ) with double-deck carriages. These connect in Trier with trains to Cologne. The Mosel-Saar-Express services runs every two hours and together with the RE 11 (Trier–Saarbrücken–Homburg (–Kaiserslautern)) services provide an hourly service on
5565-614: The Empire. Its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Prague (German: Prag ) and Budapest ( Buda , German: Ofen ), to name two examples, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain; others, like Pressburg ( Pozsony , now Bratislava), were originally settled during the Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest, Bratislava, and cities like Zagreb (German: Agram ) or Ljubljana (German: Laibach ), contained significant German minorities. In
5670-414: The Frisian languages— North Frisian (spoken in Nordfriesland ), Saterland Frisian (spoken in Saterland ), and West Frisian (spoken in Friesland )—as well as the Anglic languages of English and Scots. These Anglo-Frisian dialects did not take part in the High German consonant shift, and the Anglic languages also adopted much vocabulary from both Old Norse and the Norman language . The history of
5775-417: The German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the Migration Period , which separated Old High German dialects from Old Saxon . This sound shift involved a drastic change in the pronunciation of both voiced and voiceless stop consonants ( b , d , g , and p , t , k , respectively). The primary effects of the shift were the following below. While there is written evidence of
5880-399: The German states; the invention of the printing press c. 1440 and the publication of Luther's vernacular translation of the Bible in 1534, however, had an immense effect on standardizing German as a supra-dialectal written language. The ENHG period saw the rise of several important cross-regional forms of chancery German, one being gemeine tiutsch , used in the court of
5985-623: The Germanic dialects that were affected by the High German consonant shift (south of Benrath) from those that were not (north of Uerdingen). The various regional dialects spoken south of these lines are grouped as High German dialects, while those spoken to the north comprise the Low German and Low Franconian dialects. As members of the West Germanic language family, High German, Low German, and Low Franconian have been proposed to be further distinguished historically as Irminonic , Ingvaeonic , and Istvaeonic , respectively. This classification indicates their historical descent from dialects spoken by
6090-547: The Irminones (also known as the Elbe group), Ingvaeones (or North Sea Germanic group), and Istvaeones (or Weser–Rhine group). Standard German is based on a combination of Thuringian - Upper Saxon and Upper Franconian dialects, which are Central German and Upper German dialects belonging to the High German dialect group. German is therefore closely related to the other languages based on High German dialects, such as Luxembourgish (based on Central Franconian dialects ) and Yiddish . Also closely related to Standard German are
6195-644: The Italian autonomous region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia , as well as a recognized national language in Namibia . There are also notable German-speaking communities in France ( Alsace ), the Czech Republic ( North Bohemia ), Poland ( Upper Silesia ), Slovakia ( Košice Region , Spiš , and Hauerland ), Denmark ( North Schleswig ), Romania and Hungary ( Sopron ). Overseas, sizeable communities of German-speakers are found in Brazil ( Blumenau and Pomerode ), South Africa ( Kroondal ), Namibia , among others, some communities have decidedly Austrian German or Swiss German characters (e.g. Pozuzo , Peru). German
6300-408: The MHG period. Significantly, these texts include a number of impressive secular works, such as the Nibelungenlied , an epic poem telling the story of the dragon -slayer Siegfried ( c. thirteenth century ), and the Iwein , an Arthurian verse poem by Hartmann von Aue ( c. 1203 ), lyric poems , and courtly romances such as Parzival and Tristan . Also noteworthy
6405-463: The SBB network until the timetable change on 12 December 2004, when it was replaced by the terms RegioExpress and InterRegio which can be used in all its official languages. One year later the Rhaetian Railway ( RhB ) followed suit. This process had started a long time before, when the Schnellzug category began to be replaced initially by the InterCity type, some of which have become InterCity-Neigezug ( ICN ) or Intercity tilting trains of
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#17328018126756510-431: The Saar line in Dillingen , Saarlouis, Völklingen, although some also stopped in Beckingen and Bous . In 1995, the City-Bahn were rebranded as Stadt-Express services, which in 1998 was replaced by Regionalbahn (RB) and Regional-Express (RE) services. In 1996 it was planned to replace the electrically hauled RE trains from Saarbrücken to Koblenz with diesel tilting trains from Saarbrücken via Trier to Cologne on
6615-425: The Saar line. In addition, RB line 71 services run from Trier via Merzig, Dillingen, Saarlouis, Saarbrücken, St. Ingbert , to Homburg. These services run hourly with S-Bahn-like railcars of class 425 and 426 . Extra RB 71 services run between Dillingen and St. Ingbert to provide a 30-minute interval service. German language German (German: Deutsch , pronounced [dɔʏtʃ] )
6720-405: The Saarbrücken Railway ( Königliche Direction der Saarbrücker Eisenbahn ), the first railway owned and operated by the Prussian government. The purpose of the 88 km long route was to connect the industries of Trier, Mettlach (pottery), Völklingen (mining), Saarbrücken and the Saar region (mining and related industries) to the Ruhr and the North Sea ports. Contemporary sources described
6825-405: The Saarland ( Eisenbahnen des Saargebietes , SAAR) and the northern section was operated by the newly created Deutsche Reichsbahn (German State Railways). Following the reincorporation of the Saarland into Germany in 1935, the whole line was incorporated in the Saarbrücken Railway Administration ( Reichsbahndirektion Saarbrücken ). Following the end of the Second World War in 1945, the Saar line
6930-430: The Saarland in West Germany in 1957, the whole line became part of Deutsche Bundesbahn. But the stop for customs at Saarhölzbach was only abolished in 1959. Despite the strong mineral traffic, the Saar line was not one of the first lines of Deutsche Bundesbahn to be electrified. Electrification was first extended to Merzig and later to Saarhölzbach. Only in 1974 was the electrification completed to Trier and Koblenz. It
7035-565: The Trier–Koblenz line, D-trains ran fairly equally on both routes. Only afterwards was there a clear preference for the Moselle route. In 1973 three pairs of City-D-trains ran via Koblenz and Cologne to Düsseldorf. These trains were replaced in 1978 by InterCity -Comfort services, which were similar but had no dining car. The Saar line was included in the InterRegio network, development of which began in 1988. From 1991, there were D-train services at two-hour intervals connecting Saarbrücken, Koblenz, Cologne, Münster , Bremen and Cuxhaven , with
7140-531: The coaches from the Henschel-Wegmann train . With the delivery of new coaches of the later UIC Type X, the pre-war coaches were superseded in Fernzug service. The blue F-Zug livery was adopted later as the paint scheme for the new 1st class coaches. For these very fast trains which stopped at just a few stations – as in FD times – a special Fernschnellzug supplement was payable. The Fernzüge were replaced in 1971 by Intercity trains. The famous TEE Rheingold which ran from Amsterdam to Geneva and
7245-410: The compartments and corridors of these coaches were refurbished and given new carpets. The external livery was changed from the standard bottle green to steel blue ( RAL 5011). In addition the words Deutsche Bundesbahn or, if the coaches were only used on domestic routes, the initials DB were mounted on the sides in silver letters. In all at least 76 coaches were converted for this role. They included
7350-408: The concept was not a success because they were timetabled to meet the two-hourly IC trains that only had 1st class services, leaving 2nd class passengers hanging around for their connexions. In addition, the coaching stock of DC-Züge was no better than the general standard for normal express trains. An initiative to develop special luxury coaches specifically for the DC-Zug was dropped in favour of
7455-545: The delivery of centre-door ( Mitteleinstieg ) and Halberstädter express coaches were the, by now obsolete, Rekowagen cascaded to less important duties. For the 1951 summer timetable the DB introduced a new class of train: the Fernzug ("long-distance train"). These trains linked the economic centres of the German Federal Republic with one another. The trains were initially given the "old" FD designation and, on 22 May 1955, F for Fernzug and operated until 1956 with 1st and 2nd class coaches; and thereafter exclusively with
7560-535: The development of non-local forms of language and exposed all speakers to forms of German from outside their own area. With Luther's rendering of the Bible in the vernacular, German asserted itself against the dominance of Latin as a legitimate language for courtly, literary, and now ecclesiastical subject-matter. His Bible was ubiquitous in the German states: nearly every household possessed a copy. Nevertheless, even with
7665-456: The dialect so as to make the work as natural and accessible to German speakers as possible. 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 in
7770-519: The eastern provinces of Banat , Bukovina , and Transylvania (German: Banat, Buchenland, Siebenbürgen ), German was the predominant language not only in the larger towns—like Temeschburg ( Timișoara ), Hermannstadt ( Sibiu ), and Kronstadt ( Brașov )—but also in many smaller localities in the surrounding areas. In 1901, the Second Orthographic Conference ended with a (nearly) complete standardization of
7875-487: The following routes: They comprised 1st and 2nd class coaches, dining and sleeping cars (on night trains). They were meant to be not only very comfortable but also particularly punctual. A supplement of 2 marks was payable on D-Zug services. In 1894, the first D-Zug with third class coaches ran between Berlin and East Prussia . By 1917 almost all Schnellzüge in Germany had been gradually reclassified as D-Züge or converted to supplement-free fast-stopping trains,
7980-509: The general public. This category was the SFR-Zug ( Schnellzug für Fronturlauber mit Reisezugteil or "military express with passenger section"). Because there were not enough SF-Zug services to meet the Wehrmacht's transportation requirements, numerous express trains were modified into DmW-Züge or Schnellzüge mit Wehrmachtsteil (express trains with military sections), in which
8085-613: The historic abbreviation FD , which was introduced by the DB for its 1983 summer timetable. These trains, which had individual names, mainly linked the Hamburg area or the Ruhrgebiet with holiday resorts in southern Germany. Some also travelled abroad. The 2nd class coaches in these trains all comprised former non-airconditioned IC compartment coaches of the Bm type , that became available when they were replaced in Intercity services by
8190-435: 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. When Christ says ' ex abundantia cordis os loquitur ,' I would translate, if I followed the papists, aus dem Überflusz des Herzens redet der Mund . But tell me is this talking German? What German understands such stuff? No,
8295-481: The influence of Luther's Bible as an unofficial written standard, a widely accepted standard for written German did not appear until the middle of the eighteenth century. German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire , which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe . Until the mid-nineteenth century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of
8400-456: The journey in 16 hours. Three months later, on 1 August 1851, the first night train ran from Berlin to Bromberg . The Prussian state demanded a country-wide network of night trains; consequently the various railway companies started up fast courier trains in the years that followed (1852 to 1854), from Berlin to Breslau , Frankfurt am Main , Hamburg and Cologne. Passengers on the night-time courier trains between Berlin and Frankfurt had to pay
8505-406: The largest concentrations of German speakers are in the states of Rio Grande do Sul (where Riograndenser Hunsrückisch developed), Santa Catarina , and Espírito Santo . Durchgangszug A Schnellzug is an express train in German-speaking countries. The term is used both generically and also as a specific train type . In Germany and Austria it is also referred to colloquially as
8610-550: The left bank of the Moselle on 26 May 1860. The track stays on the right bank of the Saar and follows its many loops; as a result some of its 99 curves have very tight radii. Only one of the Saar loops, between Mettlach and Besseringen , is shortened by a tunnel. From Trier the line continues as the Eifel Railway to Cologne and Mosel line to Koblenz . The line was built by the Royal Administration of
8715-443: The line as 12.051 Prussian miles (each 7,532.5 metres) long with a projected construction cost of 5.6 million thalers . At the end of 1859 the first railway reached Trier, although passengers had to use a horse-drawn carriage from Ponten (a district of Besseringen) over the mountain to Mettlach, since the tunnel was not yet complete. The Saar line from the beginning was used by passenger and heavy freight trains. From 1 April 1881,
8820-479: The line used to be dominated by trains carrying coal from the Saar's mines. In addition to regional passenger services, the line used to have long-distance express ("D-train", D-Zug , short for Durchgangszug , literally “corridor train”) services. The D-trains ran from Saarbrücken and Trier over the Eifel Railway via Gerolstein or over the Moselle line via Koblenz to Cologne. Until the electrification of
8925-723: The line was part of the Königlichen Eisenbahn-Direction (linksrheinisch) in Köln ("Royal Railway Administration (left Rhine) in Cologne") of the Prussian state railways . Drastic change came at the end of the First World War . The greater part of the Saar line was controlled by the newly created French administration of the Saarland. The section south of Mettlach was taken over by the new Railways of
9030-498: The majority of D-Züge at that time ran with 1st, 2nd and 3rd class coaches. FD services were withdrawn on 22 August 1939. From 1933, FD trains were joined by express railcars of the Flying Hamburger type. These trains were classed as FDt or Fernschnellzug mit Triebwagen ("long-distance express train with railcar") and usually offered 2nd class accommodation only. These services ceased on 22 August 1939. During
9135-402: The mother in the home and the plain man would say, Wesz das Herz voll ist, des gehet der Mund über . Luther's translation of the Bible into High German was also decisive for the German language and its evolution from Early New High German to modern Standard German. The publication of Luther's Bible was a decisive moment in the spread of literacy in early modern Germany , and promoted
9240-440: The new air-conditioned open coaches . The all 1st class coaches were also taken from the IC fleet, the restaurant cars comprised QuickPick buffet cars, later also the half-buffet cars, type ARmz . They were joined in most cases by second class through coaches to other holiday destinations. The FD train, Königssee , between Hamburg and Berchtesgaden also included a so-called Kinderland-Wagen ("children's world coach") that had
9345-653: The ninth century, chief among them being the Muspilli , Merseburg charms , and Hildebrandslied , and other religious texts (the Georgslied , Ludwigslied , Evangelienbuch , and translated hymns and prayers). The Muspilli is a Christian poem written in a Bavarian dialect offering an account of the soul after the Last Judgment , and the Merseburg charms are transcriptions of spells and charms from
9450-462: The pronunciation of the ending -ig as [ɪk] instead of [ɪç]. In Northern Germany, High 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 High German was a written language, not identical to any spoken dialect, throughout the German-speaking area until well into the 19th century. However, wider standardization of pronunciation
9555-604: The railway companies shied away from their higher running costs. In 1861 the first express train ran from Vienna to Budapest , in 1862 express services began on the Vienna to Dresden line via Prague and in 1868 the first express ran from Vienna via Krakau and Lemberg to Bucharest . In 1887 3rd class coaches appeared in express trains for the first time, whilst the Hungarian expresses were made up exclusively of 1st and 2nd class accommodation until 1912. Later, in addition to
9660-658: The so-called Eilzüge . The only standard fare trains which did not stop at all stations were the beschleunigte Personenzüge ( BP ) or "fast passenger trains". A few Schnellzüge remained in Bavaria where they attracted supplementary fares on the Munich - Mittenwald - Innsbruck line; these did not become D-Züge until 1929. From 1923 very fast trains were grouped into a new Fernschnellzug ( FD-Zug ) or "long-distance express train" category and only offered 1st and 2nd class accommodation (e. g. FD Rheingold ), whilst
9765-546: The states of North Dakota and South Dakota , German is the most common language spoken at home after English. As a legacy of significant German immigration to the country , German geographical names can be found throughout the Midwest region , such as New Ulm and Bismarck (North Dakota's state capital), plus many other regions. A number of German varieties have developed in the country and are still spoken today, such as Pennsylvania Dutch and Texas German . In Brazil,
9870-924: The supplement was abolished on most of the DB's D-Zug routes. Within the Deutsche Reichsbahn in East Germany , the Schnellzug remained the primary long-distance service. A two-tier supplementary fare (Zone I up to 300 kilometres - 3 marks, Zone II over 300 - 5 marks) was retained until the inception of the 1991 summer timetable. Until the 1980s, the majority of express trains on domestic routes in East Germany comprised eight-wheeled Rekowagen ("reconstructed coaches"), reinforced by 1st class Modernisierungswagen ("modernised coaches"). Modernisierungswagen and Y coaches were mainly employed in high-grade and international services. Not until
9975-562: The supposed D-Nacht-Züge comprise only a few through coaches, which are coupled to other night trains . This train category does however have the advantage that they are not bound by the fare regulations of night trains, but are treated as normal long-distance services. As a result, they are used inter alia in southern Germany as a substitute for late IC connexions that are operated by DB Autozug rather than DB Fernverkehr . Many night trains run as D-Nacht services into Germany's eastern European neighbours. One provider of night express trains
10080-500: The third most commonly learned second language in the United States in K-12 education. The language has been influential in the fields of philosophy, theology, science, and technology. It is the second most commonly used language in science and the third most widely used language on websites . 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
10185-458: The usual Schnellzug , the Expresszug ( Ex ) category was introduced along with ÖBB Class 4010 express multiple units ( Triebwagenschnellzug or TS ). These have been replaced in recent years by the new Eurocity and Intercity train types. In night services, most Schnellzüge have become EuroNight trains. In Switzerland the Schnellzug train category was not entirely dropped from
10290-555: The world being published in German. German is most closely related to other West Germanic languages, namely Afrikaans , Dutch , English , the Frisian languages , and Scots . It also contains close similarities in vocabulary to some languages in the North Germanic group , such as Danish , Norwegian , and Swedish . Modern German gradually developed from Old High German , which in turn developed from Proto-Germanic during
10395-600: The written form of German. One of the central events in the development of ENHG was the publication of Luther's translation of the Bible into High German (the New Testament was published in 1522; the Old Testament was published in parts and completed in 1534). Luther based his translation primarily on the Meißner Deutsch of Saxony , spending much time among the population of Saxony researching
10500-497: The years that followed to normal D-Züge again. The most famous representatives of the Expresszug category were the Städteexpress trains introduced in 1976. In 1987 the new category Interexpress ( IEx ) emerged for international service, to which normal D-Zug fares applied. The first Austrian express train ( Schnellzug ) ran in 1857 from Vienna to Trieste . In Austria they emerged later than in Germany, because
10605-429: Was a "neutral" language as there were virtually no English native speakers in Namibia at that time. German, Afrikaans, and several indigenous languages thus became "national languages" by law, identifying them as elements of the cultural heritage of the nation and ensuring that the state acknowledged and supported their presence in the country. Today, Namibia is considered to be the only German-speaking country outside of
10710-451: Was again divided in 1947. The section south of Saarhölzbach was now under the French controlled Railways of the Saarland ( Eisenbahnen des Saarlandes , EdS), the northern section was first part of the Union of Southwest German Railways ( Betriebsvereinigung der Südwestdeutschen Eisenbahnen , SWDE), which became part of Deutsche Bundesbahn (German Federal Railway) in 1951. With the inclusion of
10815-503: Was also the Rapido long-distance, supplementary fare service, which only stopped at important stations. This type of train was later replaced by the Intercity . Occasionally the D-Zug category is still used today for day trips with special trains. In the bulk of railway services in Germany, Austria and Switzerland it only exists as a successor to the Schnellzug in the form of trains like
10920-547: Was an artificial standard that did not correspond to any traditional spoken dialect. Rather, it was based on the pronunciation of German in Northern Germany, although it was subsequently regarded often as a general prescriptive norm, despite differing pronunciation traditions especially in the Upper-German-speaking regions that still characterise the dialect of the area today – especially
11025-492: Was established on the basis of public speaking in theatres and the media during the 20th century and documented in pronouncing dictionaries. Official revisions of some of the rules from 1901 were not issued until the controversial German orthography reform of 1996 was made the official standard by governments of all German-speaking countries. Media and written works are now almost all produced in Standard German which
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