Editing German language (section)

===Low German===
{{Main|Low German}}
[[File:Verbreitungsgebiet der heutigen niederdeutschen Mundarten-2.PNG|thumb|upright=0.81|The [[Low German]] dialects]]
[[Middle Low German]] was the [[lingua franca]] of the [[Hanseatic League]]. It was the predominant language in Northern Germany until the 16th century. In 1534, the [[Luther Bible]] was published. It aimed to be understandable to a broad audience and was based mainly on [[Central German|Central]] and [[Upper German]] varieties. The Early New High German language gained more prestige than [[Low German]] and became the language of science and literature. Around the same time, the Hanseatic League, a confederation of northern ports, lost its importance as new trade routes to Asia and the Americas were established, and the most powerful German states of that period were located in Middle and Southern Germany.

The 18th and 19th centuries were marked by mass education in [[Standard German]] in schools. Gradually, Low German came to be politically viewed as a mere dialect spoken by the uneducated. The proportion of the population who can understand and speak it has decreased continuously since [[World War II]].

* Cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants in the area: most of the [[Ruhr]] ([[Dortmund]], [[Essen]], [[Bochum]], [[Gelsenkirchen]], [[Hagen]], [[Herne, North Rhine-Westphalia|Herne]], [[Bottrop]], [[Recklinghausen]]), [[Hamburg]], [[Bremen]], [[Hanover]], [[Bielefeld]], [[Münster]], [[Braunschweig]], [[Kiel]], [[Groningen]], [[Lübeck]], [[Rostock]], [[Hamm, North Rhine-Westphalia|Hamm]], [[Oldenburg (city)|Oldenburg]], [[Osnabrück]], [[Enschede]], [[Paderborn]], [[Wolfsburg]], [[Göttingen]], [[Bremerhaven]], [[Salzgitter]], [[Gütersloh]], [[Hildesheim]], and historically also [[Berlin]], [[Halle (Saale)]], [[Magdeburg]] and [[Potsdam]].