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Abstract
Languages are open systems, which constantly change, adapt, and evolve. Contact and interaction between languages result in the exchange of words, concepts, and ideas. Despite this fact, there has been no lack of Sprachpuristen in the German-speaking world over the past few centuries. For varying reasons, language purists have railed against the encroachment of foreign words into the German language. This work examines the history of foreign influences upon German, from the times of the Roman Empire through the present, and in this regard compares German to other European languages. This work then examines the history of language purism in German, and compares the movement to those in other European countries.