After many years of post-war Anglicisation and Americanisation, 7 out of ten Germans speak some English. But experts say there is a growing backlash against the widespread usage of foreign terms in the age of globalisation, technology and immigration. Business leaders are growing sick and tired of English “management speak”.

Angela Merkel A fortnight ago, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative party voted to enshrine the German language in the nation’s constitution. And German companies are beginning to shy away from depending on English for their marketing slogans, after a period of using the foreign language so often that occasionally their very own clients didn’t understand what they were speaking about.

“A lot of people have decided that enough is enough,” said Roland Kaehlbrandt, author of a book called German for Elites. “They typically are not taking companies that only use English seriously any more. We’re very open-minded and positive about everything that originates from outside, but there is a fear now that we might forget our very own language and our own culture.”

Following the war and through the Cold War in West Germany, English – particularly with the influence of the US – was simply cooler than German, he explained.

English <a href=”http://www.todaytranslations.com”>translation services</a> have typically had excellent relationships with German businesses due to the interest in English, and long may it continue. What’s more, in the past the German and British economies have conducted huge amounts of trade over hundreds of years.

No less than 60 per cent of new words getting used in Germany today are English.

“That’s excessive,” Mr Kaehlbrandt said. “It is not because of functionality. German is an extremely functional language. There is however a side to Germany that – unconsciously, I believe – is trying to get rid of our heritage to eliminate our past, which is conceived as being linked to the crimes of the Nazis. But we have changed profoundly since then. And German language is significantly older than the Nazis.”

Walter Kraemer, belonging to the German Language Association, which claims 32,000 members and campaigns to protect German, said the country’s science and industry were being damaged as Germans fell back on English jargon and terminology, when speaking with other Germans.

“There is no way around English,” said Mr Kraemer, an economist and statistician. “It truly is the international language. Before you communicate, you should be innovative, imaginative, creative, and also you can’t accomplish that properly in a language that is not your own. People think better in their own individual language. German science is suffering because of this.”

He said that after DaimlerChrysler was manufacturing cars in Stuttgart using English while in the factories, it had the greatest product recall rate in the land, whereas Porsche, which uses only German language, has minimal recalls.

Annette Trabold, a linguist with the Institute for German Language in Mannheim, which studies dialects and trends in German <a href=”http://www.todaytranslations.com”>translation services</a>, said that all languages were fluid and so it was no surprise that Germany had absorbed so much English.

“In 2006, when Germany hosted the world cup 2006, which was the first time it was really ok again to fly the German flag, to paint it on your own face. It had become a real change.”