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89-630: The bus station is used exclusively for long-distance bus travel. A total of 35 bus and coach companies are available for regular and occasional services. The ZOB Berlin is an important point of domestic and international long-distance bus transport. The bus station is located on the western edge of the City West in the Masurenallee , right next to the Berliner Ringbahn and the parallel running Bundesautobahn 100 ( Stadtautobahn ) to

178-465: 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

267-402: 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

356-612: 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

445-611: A Südring (Southern Ring) and a Nordring (Northern Ring). The north-south S-Bahn link (with the North-South S-Bahn-tunnel as its core) divides the Ringbahn into a Westring (Western Ring) and an Ostring (Eastern Ring), crossing at Gesundbrunnen station in the north and both Schöneberg station and Südkreuz in the south. These four sections served as tariff zones of the suburban fare structure before World War II . Over time, these four rings ceased to exist with

534-672: A complete circle. With the building of the Wall, the line was broken in two places: The building of the Berlin Wall in 1961 prevented continuous operation, after which passenger numbers on the West Berlin side, between Gesundbrunnen and Sonnenallee, declined. This was caused partly by a politically motivated call for a boycott, because revenue from the West Berlin S-Bahn, which was operated by East German railways, supported

623-559: 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

712-458: 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

801-696: 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

890-418: A properly provisioned train traveling from the suburbs to downtown Berlin. Originally, there were not even the necessary rails for continuing on the Ringbahn between Schöneberg and Papestraße stations. The Reichsbahn planned to replace the level crossings between the Ringbahn and Südringspitzkehre with over- and underpasses together with the building of the north-south S-Bahn line in the late 1930s, but this

979-451: A result of the conversion, which will also halve the average handling time to 15 minutes. On 21 November 2017 - at the end of the first reconstruction phase - the first ten renewed stop bays were put into operation. The renovation is expected to last until September 2022. The first part of the new terminal building was opened on 22 March 2024. Berliner Ringbahn [REDACTED] The Ringbahn ( German for circle railway)

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1068-483: 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

1157-547: A two-storey terminal with a glass façade and will then offer 280 seats (previously 76) as well as gastronomic facilities. As a result, costs in the amount of 14 million euros were assumed. In the meantime, the estimated costs continued to rise, initially to 30 million euros in March 2018 and to 37.7 million euros in May 2018 according to press reports. While buses are currently being handled at 27 stops, their number will increase to 33 as

1246-472: Is a 37.5 km (23.3 mi) long circle route around Berlin's inner city area, on the Berlin S-Bahn network. Its course is made up of a pair of tracks used by S-Bahn trains and another parallel pair of tracks used by various regional, long distance and freight trains. The S-Bahn lines S41 and S42 provide a closed-loop continuous service without termini. Lines S45, S46 and S47 use a section of

1335-601: 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

1424-612: 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

1513-558: 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

1602-478: 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

1691-434: Is called the "mushroom concept," the long-distance lines on the northern part of the ring for regional or long-distance services were rebuilt and electrified. On the ring line, regional and mainline services stop at Gesundbrunnen and regional services stop at Jungfernheide. The majority of the former ring line freight yards have been closed down or dismantled. Part of the former freight inner ring between Neukölln and Tempelhof

1780-430: 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

1869-475: Is currently underway. The complete reconstruction of the traffic system and the inclusion of the existing bus parking area should make it possible to serve all bus stops independently of each other in the future, and their number should continue to rise to 37. In addition, a basic overhaul of the buildings including energetic renovation as well as an extension of the bus stop shelter in House A is planned. Construction

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1958-535: 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

2047-611: 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

2136-565: 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

2225-435: 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

2314-597: 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

2403-401: 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

2492-470: Is responsible for the complete marketing of the buildings. In 2012, the ZOB recorded around 64,000 arrivals and departures with more than 3.2 million passengers and visitors, in the following year, the number rose to 99,870. In 2014, there were around 175,000 arrivals and departures and almost nine million passengers handled. The number of departures rose to 208,000 in 2015 and 214,000 in the following year, but in

2581-463: Is still used for freight, with a depot at Berlin-Moabit. The freight line is closed in the vicinity of Südkreuz and Ostkreuz. Branches from the ring line are: There are connecting curves between the ring line and the Stadtbahn at Ostkreuz and Westkreuz. The Südringspitzkehre spur to Potsdamer Bahnhof was closed in 1944 due to war damage and never rebuilt. Its reconstruction is being considered in

2670-525: 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

2759-646: 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 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 ),

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2848-578: 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

2937-510: Is two blocks north of Kaiserdamm ; the journey from there to Zoo station takes eight minutes, to Alexanderplatz 28 minutes. The immediate proximity to the city motorway ( Bundesautobahn 100 ) and the AVUS ( Bundesautobahn 115 ) is attractive for coach travel companies. This eliminates the congestion-prone and thus time-consuming journey through the city centre, which is often the case in other large cities. The ZOB has been operated since 2001 by

3026-485: 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

3115-689: 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

3204-639: 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

3293-539: The Anhalter Bahnhof , but later to include the Schlesischer Bahnhof . It was laid in the streets, which disrupted traffic as well as local residents. Thus, in order to reduce disruption of traffic, trains ran at night, as the train bell had to be rung constantly. Plans were soon developed to build a ring line primarily for freight, running outside the then city limits. Funding for construction

3382-568: 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

3471-537: 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

3560-549: The East German government. The East Berlin section, from Schönhauser Allee to Treptower Park, remained in operation as it formed part of a major north-south tangent. After the 1980 S-Bahn strike , service on the western part of the ring was suspended for about 13 years. On 9 January 1984, a treaty between East Germany and the West Berlin Senate came into force and turned over responsibility for operation of

3649-480: 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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3738-522: 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

3827-746: 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

3916-665: The Internationale Omnibusbahnhof Betreibergesellschaft (IOB) , a 100% subsidiary of the BVG . However, the ticket counters are operated under the ZOB travel agency brand by Zentral-Omnibusbahnhof Berlin GmbH , a subsidiary of Bayern Express & P. Kühn Berlin . There are also ticket containers of other long-distance bus companies such as Flixbus and Eurolines at the ZOB. However, the IOB

4005-659: The Messe Berlin . The Messe Nord/ICC S-Bahn station on the circular railway ( S41 / S42 , S46 ) and the Kaiserdamm underground station of the U2 underground line are about 300 and 350 metres away respectively. There is a direct connection to the bus station only via some bus lines of the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG). The connection to the city centre is via the U2 underground line, whose station

4094-666: 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

4183-676: 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

4272-550: 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

4361-513: 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

4450-469: 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

4539-410: The "screw concept," as trains entered the ring from the south at Neukölln and circled around it one and a half times, at the time the trip around the ring could not be achieved in less than 63 minutes. Since 28 May 2006, circular service has been operated as lines S41 (clockwise) and S42 (anticlockwise). Trains take around 60 minutes, running every five minutes in peak hours and every ten minutes between

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4628-723: 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

4717-748: 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

4806-536: 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

4895-399: 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

4984-623: 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

5073-547: 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

5162-408: 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

5251-409: The Ringbahn comprises the "Berlin A" zone in the Verkehrsverbund Berlin-Brandenburg 's fare structure. The Ringbahn also serves as the border for Berlin's low-emission zone , established on 1 January 2008. In 1851, the Königliche Bahnhofs-Verbindungsbahn (Royal Station Connection Railway) was completed between the termini of some railroads terminating in Berlin: initially the Stettiner Bahnhof and

5340-466: The S-Bahn in West Berlin to the West Berlin transport authority BVG . It was initially planned to restore the section between Westend and Sonnenallee . After German reunification in 1990, plans were changed, so that in 1993 the south ring was reopened to the junction with the line towards Baumschulenweg with a connection to the Goerlitz line . The reconstruction of the connection between Sonnenallee and Treptow Park required large-scale renovation that

5429-430: The ZOB Berlin plays a special role as a gateway to Eastern Europe . The importance of the ZOB for the German capital is underlined, among other things, by its proximity to the exhibition grounds. Thus the ZOB is used particularly strongly to the trade fairs , like the Berlin International Green Week (IGW), the ITB Berlin (ITB) or the Internationale Funkausstellung Berlin (IFA) A basic overhaul and capacity expansion

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5518-476: The course of market consolidation the number of departures dropped to 166,000 in 2017, with the number of passengers remaining almost unchanged at around six million. A corridor between 230,000 and 344,000 arrivals and departures is expected for 2019. According to the IOB, 55 bus companies regularly use the ZOB, another ten companies stop at it in occasional traffic. From here, their lines connect Berlin with many parts of Europe. Due to Berlin's geographical location,

5607-430: 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

5696-404: 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

5785-435: 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

5874-435: 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,

5963-417: 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

6052-402: 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

6141-425: The need for trains to reverse there to continue their trip around the ring. Passengers could change at the Kolonnenstraße station across the platform to continue to ride on the Ringbahn without going all the way to the Potsdamer Ringbahnhof. From 1 January 1872 onwards, freight was carried on the line to freight yards separate from the passenger stations. The line was electrified in 1926. In 1930, ring line operation

6230-423: 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

6319-465: The peaks, and in the evenings, using the greatly accelerated 481/482 series trains. Some sections of the ring are used by other lines. On the southern ring from the Görlitz line in the southeast, line S47 terminates at Hermannstraße , S46 at Westend and S45 at Berlin Südkreuz station , with some terminating at Bundesplatz . On the eastern section of the ring, lines S8 , S85 and S9 operate between Schönhauser Allee and Treptower Park. Under what

6408-529: The planning options for line S21 . The following long-distance and freight curves connect with the ring line: German language German (German: Deutsch , pronounced [dɔʏtʃ] ) 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

6497-462: 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

6586-477: The removal of track connections. Only at Westkreuz does an original such track remain, used only for utility purposes. At Ostkreuz, a newly-designed bypass provides access to southern branches without having to enter the station. Gesundbrunnen is not a typical crossing, but rather has parallel tracks that curve to the south after leaving the station, allowing trains to run towards Südkreuz . The approximately 88-square-kilometre (34 sq mi) area encompassed by

6675-636: The ring was complete for freight and long-distance trains, while the suburban trains running on the Ringbahn would still visit and reverse at Potsdamer station in the city center , turning north from the ring, running parallel to the Berlin–Potsdam–Magdeburg Railway . This section from the actual ring into the Potsdamer ring station became known as the Südringspitzkehre ( Southern ring switchback or hairpin turn ), reflecting

6764-610: The side where there is the new Julius-Leber-Brücke ) to Potsdamer station (and, from 1891 onward, to a separate annex, Potsdamer ring station). From there, trains returned in the opposite direction. The line crossed the Anhalt Railway (and later the Royal Prussian Military Railway) on bridges. With the opening of the section from Schöneberg through the still-independent city of Charlottenburg (now Westend station ) to Moabit on 15 November 1877,

6853-565: The southern and western ring, while lines S8 and S85 use sections of the eastern ring. The combined number of passengers is about 400,000 passengers a day. Due to its distinctive shape, the line is often referred to as the Hundekopf (Dog's Head). The Ringbahn is bisected by an east–west railway thoroughfare called the Stadtbahn (city railway), which crosses the Ringbahn from Westkreuz (Western Cross) to Ostkreuz (Eastern Cross), forming

6942-546: 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,

7031-500: 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

7120-555: 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

7209-652: 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

7298-429: 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

7387-547: 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

7476-497: Was combined with the Stadtbahn and suburban services as the Berlin S-Bahn . Since the trains were pulled by steam locomotives, they had to be refilled with water and coal and serviced at relatively short intervals; this was possible by reversing at Potsdamer Bahnhof. Even after electrification, the management of the railway company wanted to spare the passengers the need to change at the Papestraße or Schöneberg stations to

7565-492: 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

7654-518: Was not feasible in the short term. The western part of the ring line was put back into operation in stages: More than 12 years after the fall of the Wall, the last gap of the S-Bahn between Westhafen, Wedding and Gesundbrunnen, was fully restored on 16 June 2002. Promotional material for the reopening referred this as the "Wedding Day," an allusion to the English word "wedding." Services operated under

7743-448: Was omitted as one of many planned changes after the proclamation of Hitler's Welthauptstadt Germania on 30 January 1937. In World War II , the Potsdamer and Anhalter stations were heavily bombed; the Südringspitzkehre was closed in 1944 and was never reopened. From 1944 until the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, S-Bahn trains ran over the direct line between Papestraße (now Südkreuz ) and Schöneberg opened in 1933, making

7832-460: Was possible only after the victory in the war with Austria of 1866 . The Lower Silesia-March [of Brandenburg] Railway Company was commissioned to construct and manage the line: construction began in 1867 and was completed in 1877. The first section opened on 17 July 1871 from Moabit through Gesundbrunnen , Central-Viehhof (now Storkower Straße ), Stralau-Rummelsburg (now Ostkreuz ), Rixdorf (now Neukölln ) and Schöneberg (later Kolonnenstraße, at

7921-460: Was scheduled to begin in June 2016 and was then expected to take three years but ultimately took longer. Initially (as of 2013), EUR 3.7 million had been earmarked for this, plus EUR 5 million for the renovation of the bus stop shelter, the control centre and the toilet house. In 2016, for structural reasons, it was decided to demolish and completely rebuild two buildings instead. The waiting hall will be

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