Short answers, pulled from the story.
The German language began its distinct journey during the Migration Period between the second and sixth centuries. This era saw a radical transformation known as the High German consonant shift that separated Old High German from Old Saxon.
The publication of Martin Luther's translation of the Bible in 1534 stands as the single most decisive event in the history of the German language. Luther based his translation primarily on the East Central German dialect of Saxony to create a supra-dialectal written standard.
Namibia is the only German-speaking country outside of Europe with about 30,000 people still speaking German as a native tongue today. This community consists mostly of descendants of German colonial settlers from the period between 1884 and 1915.
The German language has three distinct national standard varieties: German Standard German, Austrian Standard German, and Swiss Standard German. These varieties differ mainly in lexicon and phonology while sharing smaller grammatical differences.
The letter replaced ss after long vowels and diphthongs in the German orthography reform of 1996. The capital was ultimately adopted into German orthography in 2017 ending a long orthographic debate.