87-650: Source: German railway atlas The Wannsee Railway ( German : Wannseebahn ) is a suburban railway in Berlin running from Potsdamer Platz via the Ring line station of Schöneberg to Wannsee station on Großer Wannsee , a lake after which it is named. Today it is a section of the Berlin S-Bahn line S1 . The original section of the Wannsee Railway was built in 1874 and branched off at Zehlendorf from
174-465: 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
261-402: 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
348-612: 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
435-549: A connection to the Wannsee depot for the remaining West Berlin S-Bahn trains operating through the north-south tunnel on services between Lichtenrade or Lichterfelde Süd and Heiligensee . After West Berlin’s takeover of the western S-Bahn network on 9 January 1984 it was decided to put the Wannsee line back in operation. Extensive work was required at stations in particular. It was reopened as line S1 on 1 February 1985. Today,
522-559: 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
609-458: 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
696-696: 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
783-483: 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
870-677: A result, the unifying of Wannsee and Ring tracks at Sedanbrücke was not realised. Today a new station, Berlin Julius-Leber-Brücke station is located near the site of the old Kolonnenstraße station. After the grand opening of the underground Berlin Anhalter Bahnhof station on 6 October 1939, the merged diameter line ran thru the new tunnel between Wannsee and Oranienburg via Potsdamer Platz , Unter den Linden , Friedrichstrasse and Stettiner Bahnhof . Tracks had to be shifted at 17 places during one night's work in
957-717: 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
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#17327798903421044-601: 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
1131-612: 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
1218-558: 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
1305-478: 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
1392-430: 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
1479-535: 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
1566-611: 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
1653-565: 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
1740-520: Is one of the few structures belonging to the complex that survives today, and is used as an event venue. In 1939, these three suburban lines were paired with the three southern suburban lines to form three transversal lines, by means of the North-South S-Bahn link with a tunnel from Stettiner Bahnhof to Anhalter Bahnhof under the Berlin city centre. As part of opening of the first phase,
1827-435: 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
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#17327798903421914-597: 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
2001-401: 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
2088-525: 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
2175-578: 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
2262-485: 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
2349-689: 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
2436-639: 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
2523-474: The Bankers trains also on the mainline tracks. The construction of the North-South S-Bahn link , decided in 1933, and begun in 1934, involved the pairwise integration of each of the three southern suburban lines with one of the three northern suburban lines to North-South transversal lines, based on the similar size of their usage by passengers. The Wannseebahn being the strongest of all Berlin suburban lines
2610-537: 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
2697-417: 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
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2784-522: 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
2871-746: 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
2958-666: 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
3045-520: The Potsdam trunk line and rejoined the line at the current Griebnitzsee station . After the opening of the Lichterfelde West station on the trunk line in 1872 to serve the new suburb of mansions only ( villa colony , German: Villenkolonie ) of Lichterfelde-West , the new emerging suburbs of Schlachtensee , Wannsee and Düppel sought their own rail connection. The official opening of
3132-676: 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
3219-550: 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
3306-513: 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
3393-469: 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
3480-584: The 12.06 km length of the mainline tracks between Berlin Potsdamer station and Zehlendorf for the Bankers trains running non-stop to the long distance station of Potsdamer Bahnhof . This project included the building of three new stations on the Wannseebahn line and a new one on the Ringbahn , from South to North: Electrical operation started on 15 May 1933, both on the suburban tracks and, for
3567-503: The Berlin passenger train terminus of the Preußische Nordbahn (Prussian Northern Railway) to Stralsund via Neu-Strelitz , and later also to Rostock . The increasing popularity of the station caused massive traffic problems in the north of the city, because the tracks were laid at street level. It was particularly bad during the summer months when holiday traffic was busy. During the years 1892-1898, some passenger traffic
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3654-723: 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
3741-748: 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
3828-536: 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
3915-451: 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
4002-681: 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
4089-655: 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
4176-865: 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
4263-518: 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
4350-577: The Wannsee line is again an important link from the south-western residential areas to central Berlin. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall it forms part of the S1 line between Wannsee and Oranienburg. Traffic has increased steadily, so that, in addition to the 10-minute interval basic service, for several years extra services have operated in the peak hour. German language German (German: Deutsch , pronounced [dɔʏtʃ] )
4437-609: The bridge then called Sedanbrücke , today Julius-Leber-Brücke , was identified as the best place for this side switching, which was to be achieved by a tunnel for the suburban tracks under the mainline tracks, called the Wannseebahntunnel . Switching sides at that place left the Großgörschenstraße Wannseebahn-station without its trains. It was to be replaced by a new station running south from Yorckstraße to Großgörschenstraße, while
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#17327798903424524-438: The construction of Berlin Wall in 1961 the line was cut back to Wannsee– Frohnau while trains no longer stopped at the East Berlin underground stations (except for Friedrichstrasse station, which functioned as a border crossing and transfer to the Stadtbahn). After a strike by West Berlin employees of the East German Railways in 1980 passenger service were not resumed on the Wannsee line. It continued to serve, however, as
4611-430: 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
4698-404: 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
4785-435: 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
4872-406: The extension was made on 1 June 1874. Unlike the new Lichterfelde West station, which was completely financed by the builder of the villa colony, Johann Anton Wilhelm von Carstenn, the planning and construction of the new stations was carried out by the railway company and the Prussian government. On 1 October 1891, the new Wannsee Railway opened as the first suburban route in Germany, separated from
4959-416: The first section of the Wannsee line to Zehlendorf caused problems. Therefore, from 1907 these trains ran on the main line to Zehlendorf, where they switched to the suburban tracks. Those train terminated in the main line station of Potsdamer Bahnhof , not the separate Wannsee -station. Suburban trains from Werder (Havel) via the Potsdam-Zehlendorf main line tracks took the same path. Between 1911 and 1912
5046-435: 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,
5133-417: 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
5220-422: The large Berlin terminals; from around 750,000 in 1894 the number had risen to more than 1,2 million in 1937. As part of the renovation, a special suburban station ( Vorortbahnhof ) was built to the west of the mainline terminal in 1896, serving three suburban lines, to Bernau on the Berlin-Stettin railway , to Oranienburg on the North Railway, and to Velten via Berlin-Tegel on the Kremmen Railway . It
5307-423: The largest concentrations of German speakers are in the states of Rio Grande do Sul (where Riograndenser Hunsrückisch developed), Santa Catarina , and Espírito Santo . Berlin Nordbahnhof Berlin Nordbahnhof ( lit. ' Berlin North station ' ) is a railway station in the Mitte district of Berlin , Germany . It is served by the Berlin S-Bahn and local bus and tram lines. Until 1950,
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#17327798903425394-430: The line later also became important for reaching the holiday resorts on the Baltic Sea (so-called Pomerania Riviera or more colloquial Berliners' bath tub ). As the number of passengers increased rapidly, the station became one of Berlin's busiest railway termini and had to be enlarged several times. Between 1870 and 1876, an entirely new and much larger terminal building was constructed. From 1877, this also became
5481-450: The line to connect the stations in the northern and southern areas of West Berlin . Trains only stopped in the stations with entrances in West Berlin, and when they passed through the East Berlin stations passengers viewed from the train windows the empty and barely lit platforms of so-called ghost stations , where time had stood still since 13 August 1961. All entrances were closed until the station reopened on 1 September 1990. Soon after,
5568-440: The main line and having its own fare structure. Separate tracks for long-distance and suburban services were built between Potsdamer Bahnhof (near the current Potsdamer Platz station) and Zehlendorf and between Wannsee and Potsdam , the suburban tracks running west of the mainline tracks. Also to the west of Potsdamer Bahnhof, and set back south by some 300 meters, a separate station for Wannsee line services called Wannsee Bahnhof
5655-402: The mainline tracks. During World War II, the station fell victim to heavy bombardment, and the hall burnt down in 1943. On 25 April 1945 the S-Bahn ceased operation due to the Soviet invasion, which had reached Berlin's suburbia on 21 April. Most likely on 2 May 1945 the SS exploded the tunnel ceiling under Landwehrkanal , which caused the subsequent flooding of the tunnel. After World War II
5742-402: 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
5829-409: The name of Nordbahnhof . During the Uprising of 1953 in East Germany and East Berlin the S-Bahn, operated by the eastern Deutsche Reichsbahn , interrupted traffic between 17 June and 9 July 1953. Between 13 August 1961, the day the Berlin Wall went up, and 1 September 1990 trains did not stop at the station, because it was located in East Berlin . Nevertheless, the Reichsbahn continued to operate
5916-423: 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
6003-410: The northern section, the present-day underground station of the S-Bahn opened on 28 May 1936. The new underground station replaced the former suburban railway station, whose railhead building can still be seen west of the Nordbahnhof on Zinnowitzer Straße . The new, underground, S-Bahn station was located East of the main building, with the tracks crossing from the west to the east under the approaches of
6090-403: The old Großgörschenstraße extended south from the eponymous street. The plan was to combine the Ringbahn switch-back line to the Potsdam Ringbahnhof with the Wannsee suburban line in a directional manner, converting the existing Ringbahn station Kolonnenstraße into an exchange station with two platforms, the Wannsee tracks using the inner platform edges, and the Ringbahn tracks using
6177-421: The old at-grade connection to the Wannsee track at Zehlendorf was replaced by a grade-separated crossing. The Wannsee railway was operated until 1933 with steam trains. After the completion of the electrification of the cross-city Stadtbahn and circular Ringbahn lines, the electrification of the Wannseebahn was begun in 1932, fitting the 18.61 km long line with third rail touched from below, and also
6264-550: The outer tracks and platform edges. Construction started in 1936. The plans were cut short by the announcement, on 30 January 1937, of Hitler's plans for a Welthauptstadt Germania which entailed also grand plans for a vast reorganisation of Berlin's railway network. The work for the North-South S-Bahn link was interrupted for several months to change the construction plans, calling off all not yet completely finished works which might contradict those Germania plans. As
6351-590: The passage under the Spree . The trains of the Wannsee railway had to operate until the summer of 1946 to the above-ground Ring line and suburban stations at Potsdamer Bahnhof; passengers then transferred walking to the underground Potsdamer Platz station to travel further north. It was only after the complete repair of the tunnel sections allowing continuous operations through the tunnel in November 1947 that Wannsee railway trains resumed services to Oranienburg. After
6438-462: 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
6525-476: The section between Schöneberg station and the new tunnel in order to establish the new track paths. The bankers’ and Werder trains continued to operate to the terminal Potsdamer mainline station until 1944, when that station was closed for good. At the end of World War II the north-south tunnel was flooded due to bombing of the ceiling of the tunnel under the Landwehr Canal . There was also damage to
6612-546: 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,
6699-655: The station itself was within the Soviet sector (East Berlin). After drainage and repair the tunnel and its stations reopened for traffic in November 1947. On 1 December 1950, the name of the formerly German town of Stettin was deleted by a renaming into Berlin Nordbahnhof . Since the rail lines leading to the station crossed the territories of West Berlin, it was closed by the GDR authorities on 18 May 1952 and had been demolished by 1962. The adjacent S-Bahn station remained under
6786-714: The station was known as Stettiner Bahnhof . In 1842, the Stettiner Bahnhof opened as the terminus of the railway line to the capital of the state of Pomerania, Stettin ( Polish : Szczecin (since 1945 a part of Poland). The terminus was built on the previous site of the gallows field on the Invalidenstraße , in front of the Hamburg Gate in the Berlin Customs Wall . Initially mainly intended to connect Berlin to Stettin's sea port,
6873-500: 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
6960-555: 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
7047-600: 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
7134-429: 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
7221-547: 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
7308-492: 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
7395-433: Was established. From 13 July 1900 to 1 July 1902 the first trials of 750 volt direct current electrification with top-contact third rail were carried out between Berlin and Zehlendorf mixed with continued operation of steam trains to Potsdam. In 1903 services of special trains (later called bankers’ trains , German: Bankierszüge ) ran non-stop from Berlin to Zehlendorf. The mixing of stopping and non-stopping trains on
7482-704: Was integrated with the suburban line from Stettiner Bahnhof (today Nordbahnhof ) to Oranienburg , of similar size. Since the tunnel section of the North-South-Link started at Anhalter Bahnhof , located to the East of the Potsdamer station, the Wannsee tracks had to change side from the west side of the Potsdam main line tracks to their East side. The section of the line between the Schöneberg station and
7569-530: Was redirected to the goods station at Eberswalder Straße to ease congestion. To solve these problems, an extensive renovation and remodeling of the station took place between 1900 and 1903. The rails were lifted above street level to solve the traffic problems, and three smaller halls were added to the east of the main hall: two for holiday traffic to the Baltic coast, and one to handle mail transport. The Stettiner saw more long-distance passengers than any other of
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