Written in a lively and accessible style, the book looks at the history of German through a wide range of texts, from medical, legal and scientific writing to literature, everyday newspapers and adverts.

1: Introduction; 2: Pre-textual German; 1: Old High German (c.750–c.1050); 3: The Lord's Prayer; 4: Heroic Lay; 5: Legal code; 6: Political treaty; 7: Gospel harmony; 8: Political praise poem; 9: Phrasebook; 10: History; 2: Middle High German (c.1050–c.1350); 11: Williram of Ebersberg; 12: Courtly romance; 13: French influence; 14: Legal Documents; 15: Legal code; 16: Mysticism; 17: Medicine; 3: Early New High German (c.1350–c.1700); 18: Humanism and linguistic levelling; 19: Low German and the language of business; 20: Language use for special purposes; 21: Language use in the early mass media; 22: Bible translation; 23: Purism in the seventeenth century; 24: Dialect; IV: New High German (c.1700–c.1945); IV 25: ‘Natural style'; IV 26: J.W. Goethe; IV 27: Political pamphlets; IV 28: A History of the German Language through Texts; IV 29: Industrialization, technology and language; IV 30: Elements of everyday language use; IV 31: Scientific prose in the nineteenth century; IV 32: National Socialism; V: Contemporary German (c.1945–2000); V 33: The language of the GDR; V 34: The public sphere; V 35: English Influence; V 36: Newspapers; V 37: Jugendsprache