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    Globales Sprachenverhältnis für wissenschaftliche Publikationen 1880-2005

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    5. Archsinner on

      I remember when someone in our class asked the professor if he publishes his papers in German or in English and he looked at us like we’re utter morons

    6. namitynamenamey on

      Germany was en route of becoming the capital of sciences back in the early 20 century, even some US university adopted a german logo for their science academy. Then what happened happened, and that was that.

    7. fakoff on

      I have absolutely no problem with having English as the world language. We are not so isolated within our borders anymore and we need a universal language. English is so easy compared to Slavic or other Germanic languages.

    8. gONzOglIzlI on

      Ha, I wonder if in the far distant future, our current version of English will become the „Classical dead language“ of science that Latin is today.

    9. thrillho145 on

      Having a hegemonic language is a good thing, but it’s sad that it means the death of other languages 

    10. alienatedcabbage on

      In the 90s while my parents were doing their chemistry degrees in NZ it was a requirement for the chemistry librarian to speak and read German. A decent amount of older articles and books were in German and not translated to English.

    11. Designer_Jury_8594 on

      Interesting russian peak in 1970.
      I’m from Russia but can understand the causr

    13. No_Good2794 on

      This graph seems incomplete without Chinese. It’s probably still a fraction of the total because Chinese scientists also often publish in English, but it would be interesting to see the fluctuations over the decades.

      P.S. What about the source?

    19. NemuriNezumi on

      the reason for the japanese one is because for the most part researchers and graduates can’t write in english

      we had a new guest researcher at the lab who claimed he was using chatgpt to translate his stuff so it could get published-

      and not uncommon at all sadly

    20. Consistent_Guava8592 on

      Skipping Chinese in the chart in order to avoid trend reversal?

    22. Leprecon on

      Hitler really fucked Germany hard. Before Hitler in Europe it was normal to speak German as a second language, and to watch German movies or losten to German music. And of course German was a huge scientific language.

      I think it might have been possible that German would be one of the main languages of the world. But thanks to Hitler German is just a regional language of Europe.

      If Hitler hadn’t happened, Germany would be way bigger, more populous, and the German language would be far more prominent than it is now. Hitler ruined Germany. I know, I am taking the brave stance that Hitler = bad.

    23. X-Jet on

      English is not without its problems but it is easier to learn, than all of the above.
      People should focus on discoveries more than on learning massive grammar. IMHO Esperanto should have become global in that regards.

    27. Patrick_Atsushi on

      If the painter realised his dream, we would have all speaking German on Reddicht.de.  

    28. metaph3r on

      Yeah. Hitler was one of the biggest mistakes Germany did. We kind of recovered but now many people in this country want to repeat that mistake.

    29. zodwieg on

      When I was young, I briefly worked in science (geophysics), and one day I needed some specific information. I found a scientific journal with the relevant article in our institute library – and, to my surprise, it was in French! Géomagnétisme et Aéronomie or something like that, issued around 1985 or so. That was the first and the last time that my decent French taught at school helped me with my job, lol.

    31. zetsubouda on

      A few hundred years earlier: 90%+ Latin, 3% French maybe,…
      Guesstimated.

    32. Sufficient-Tackle-25 on

      **China** has published the most scientific papers in 2025–2026, officially overtaking the United States in overall volume and leading prestigious global metrics.

      English is the lingua franca right now, easier than French, German, Mandarin, Korean, etc.

    33. chronically_slow on

      I’m currently sitting in a lecture hall of a German university in Germany. The lecture is held by a German for mostly German students… in English

      I don’t mind that at all, but looking at this graph really shows what could have been if Germany hadn’t been lead by idiot bastards in the early 20th century

    35. Malistrae on

      Many academic institutions do performance evaluations based on an employee’s publications. Publications written in a foreign language usually score higher in the system. Out of these, English is the most convenient, as it guarantees maximum spread and citations. Which are also a very important metric in the evaluations and the ones researchers have no real control over beyond trying to make sure their work reaches as many people as possible.

      Thus, there is presently an extremely strong incentivization for publishing in English.

    36. ciccioriccio on

      Imagine Germany but without the nazi. Why do they always have to ruin everything?

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