Did You Know?

German is used by more than 120 million people around the world, and is the third most studied foreign language in the United States.

Overview:

German (called Deutsch in German; in German the term germanisch refers to pre-Christian times) is one of the world's major languages.  [...]  The term "German" is used for the dialects of Germany, Austria, German-speaking Switzerland (i.e., outside the French-, Italian-, and Romansch-speaking areas) and some areas in the surrounding countries, as well as for several colonies and other ethnic concentrations founded by German-speaking people (e.g. in North America).

Classification:

German is a member of the West branch of the Germanic family of languages, which in turn is part of the Indo-European language family.

Geographic Distribution:

German is spoken primarily in Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, the major part of Switzerland, Luxembourg, the South Tyrol (in German, Südtirol) region of Italy, the East Cantons of Belgium, parts of Romania, Poland, Alsace (in German, Elsaß) and parts of the Lorraine (in German, Lothringen) region of France. Additionally, several former colonial possessions of these countries, such as Namibia, have sizable German-speaking populations, and there are German-speaking minorities in several eastern European countries, including Russia, Hungary and Slovenia, and in North America (particularly the United States) as well as Iceland (below Greenland.) Some Latin American areas, such as Argentina and the Brazilian states of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraná, and Espírito Santo, also have German minorities.  [...]  The Amish and some Mennonites also speak a dialect of German.  [...]

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Did You Know? statistics come from Infoplease, "All the knowledge you need" and Ethnologue, "Languages of the world, and a whole lot more!"
Overview, Classification and Geographic Distribution information is adapted from Wikipedia, "The free encyclopedia"