German

German (Deutsch) is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol in Italy, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and Liechtenstein. It is one of the three official languages of Luxembourg and a co-official language in the Opole Voivodeship in Poland. The languages that are most similar to German are the other members of the West Germanic language branch, including Afrikaans, Dutch, English, the Frisian languages, Low German/Low Saxon, Luxembourgish, and Yiddish. There are strong similarities in vocabulary with Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, although those belong to the North Germanic group. German is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English.
== Links to Peel ==
Although Peel recorded many programmes for German radio stations and appeared on some German TV programmes including Signale Aus Der Schwabischen Strasse and Störung Ost, he had no linguist ability in the language and remarked on one BFBS programme that some listeners were so amused by his attempts to pronounce titles or band names in that language that they made off-air compilations of his efforts. 
Despite having no ability to speak the language fluently, Peel did play records from German speaking territories. Most German speaking artists on his shows had song titles in English, but there were moments when he played German language records, especially in the early 80's, when the Neue Deutsche Welle music scene started to appear, where artists sang in German rather than English.
In the early 80's, Peel criticised many German artists singing in English and in one interview with the Same Old Song zine, No. 29, published in June 1980, he wrote to German Rock-O-Rama record label founder Egoldt in May 1980 criticising German bands singing in English:
"One thing about the records. Why do German singers sing in English? Is it because it is fashionable? Or is it a marketing consideration? Whichever it is, I think they should sing in German anyway."thumb|300x300px|German speaker on Peel's show from 16 October 1979Through the 80's and beyond Peel continued supporting artists of various genres who sang mainly in German such as Die Toten Hosen, FSK and Einstürzende Neubauten. Many of them did sessions for his shows solely in the German language. However, not all German titles were sang by artists from German speaking countries. For example, in 1999, English band, Six By Seven, did a cover of David Bowie's Hero in the German language titled Helden, for Peel's session. 
Peel used Foreign Language Announcers on his shows, some of them speaking in German and he also kept an English-German dictionary at his home in Peel Acres, especially when translating German words. 
== Festive Fifty Entries ==
This is a list of Festive Fifty entry songs whose titles were in full or partial German
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* 1983 Festive Fifty: X-Mal Deutschland: Incubus Succubus #13
* 1983 Festive Fifty: X-Mal Deutschland: Qual #32
* 1986 Festive Fifty: Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle: I Wish I Could Sprechen Sie Deutsche #33
* 1999 Festive Fifty: Six By Seven: Helden #43
== Sessions ==
This is a list of session artists whose song titles were mostly in German
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* Attwenger: (1 session, 1992)
* Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft (DAF): (1 session, 1979)
* Einstürzende Neubauten: (1 session, 1983)
* Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle (FSK): (7 sessions, 1985-2004)
* Foyer Des Arts: (1 session, 1986)
* Palais Schaumburg: (1 session, 1982)
* Die Toten Hosen: (1 session, 1984)
* Xmal Deutschland: (4 sessions, 1982-85)
== See Also ==
* Welsh
* Irish
* French
* Glossary
== External Links ==
* Wikipedia
Category:Subjects