German is also spoken as the native language in Austria, Liechtenstein, most of Switzerland, South Tirol (northern Italy) and in small areas of Belgium, France (Alsace) and Luxembourg along the German border. The German minorities in Poland, Romania and the countries of the former Soviet Union have partly retained the German language as well.

German is the native language of more than 100 million people. About one in ten books published throughout the world has been written in German. As regards translations into foreign languages, German is third after English and French, and more works have been translated into German than into any other language.