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German is the most widely spoken language in the European Union (19% of Europeans spoke German in 2007), with over 120 million speakers worldwide.
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German is the official language of Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg, and Liechtenstein.
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German is the 3rd most popular language taught worldwide.
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Sigmund Freud, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Karl Marx wrote in German, as did Immanuel Kant, the Brothers Grimm, Georg Cantor, Max Weber, Franz Kafka, and Hannah Arendt, among many others.
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Germany has the 3rd strongest economy in the world.
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Germany is the #1 exporting nation in the world.
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Germany is the major force behind the European Union.
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There are more than 1,100 companies in German-speaking countries that have subsidiaries in the United States. These companies account for 700,000 jobs in the USA.
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German is the 2nd most commonly used scientific language.
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Classical music today would not be the same if it were not for German speaking composers such as Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Strauss, and Wagner, to name a few.
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German is the 2nd most commonly used language for scholarly publications in the world.
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Over 2,000 scholarships and grants are awarded to US students each year to help them study abroad in Germany.
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German Americans make up the single largest heritage group reported in the US (approximately 15%).
