Germany has become the latest European country making efforts to promote its native language.

The country is on the heels of France, which has sent diplomats to the United Nations and the European Union in a bid to halt the decline of French.

Now Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle is doing the same for Germany, spearheading an international effort to sell German as the "Language of Ideas."

Launching the campaign last week, Westerwelle said that German was "the language at the heart of Europe.

"It is the key to more than 350 German universities and colleges, to Europe's largest economy. It grants access to German literature, music, philosophy, and science, to the wealth of great European cultural traditions and, not least, it is the key to realizing one's own goals and ideas."

There are 2.5 million fewer students of the German language worldwide than just three years ago, according to Associated Press. The country itself has over 100 million native speakers.

In 2009, Westerwelle was given a budget of 300 million Euros – about $409 million US – to spend on projects to promote German language and culture.

Last September, he suffered derision after refusing to answer a question posed by a BBC reporter in English.

He asked why he should spend so much money promoting the language "in the world and not speak German at home?"

"German is a beautiful language," he said at the time. "I am not ashamed of it. I simply speak it."

28 February 2010