New High German

The most important characteristic of the period is the development of a standard written German, followed by the standardisation of the spoken language.

[8] The 1641 publication of Justus Georg Schottelius's Teutsche Sprachkunst marks the beginning of the debate about a standardized national language.

[14][7] For the first two hundred years of the period, the linguistic boundary of German remained relatively stable, even where the territory itself changed hands, as in Alsace, a French possession since the Treaty of Westphalia.

[17] At the end of the Second World War the German-speaking populations of Bohemia and the land east of the Oder-Neisse line, which became part of Poland, were forcibly expelled.

Rather, the standard language has selected particular features and these choices have then exerted an influence on individual German dialects.

Map of Central Europe in 1648:
Territories under the Holy Roman Empire , comprising the Alpine heartland ( Erblande ) of the Habsburg monarchy .
Current distribution areas of the German language in Europe