Articles

The following study aims to study the evolution, historical and functional dynamics of the German language in Albania, starting from its early phases of confrontation and presentation among Albanians as a language of scientific prestige and elite education, to its contemporary role as a language of certification, study, employment and professional mobility. Based on multifaceted historical sources, press materials, audiovisual media, institutional documents, unpublished interviews, personal archival funds and the narratives of the protagonists or their descendants, the authors argue that German in Albania has managed to maintain a significant weight, although disproportionate in relation to its numerical extent. In its early stages, German was associated almost exclusively with Albanology and with the orientation of the elites towards centres such as Vienna, Graz and Berlin; during socialism it survived in forms of refined state and ideological control, especially in "Radio Tirana", in the field of translation and in specific trajectories of generational formation, while after 1990 it was reformatted as a language of convertible professional and academic capital. The authors' contribution also addresses the current challenges of German studies that are mostly related to student and youth pragmatism, the competition of certification models, the pressure of the labour market and the impact of artificial intelligence on teaching and translation. From this perspective, German in Albania is shown to us today as an almost endemic phenomenon and a truly significant case of the combination between cultural history, education and human mobility.