English is a must, German is a bonus!

The list of his functions is impressively long and exudes internationality: President of the International Association for Germanic Studies from 2010 to 2015, Vice-Chairman of the Chinese Ministry of Education's Advisory Committee on Foreign Language Teaching in Higher Education (Head of the 'German in Higher Education' working group), and President of the Shanghai Humboldt Club, to name just a few. Some people also call Prof. Zhu Jianhua the high priest of German Studies in China. He shared his thoughts on native tongues and foreign languages in academic life with Juliane Albrecht when they spoke recently during his visit to Münster University. Why has German become so important in China and undergone such a dynamic development? - German language teaching in China has grown steadily. The reason is that, after China's policy of reform and the opening-up of the country, importing technical know-how - in other words, scientific and technical achievements - from western countries was high on the list of priorities. And in our view Germany is the strongest country in Europe in this respect. That is what started the trend in China. Also, great names such as Goethe and Schiller, Beethoven and Mozart, Marx and Engels in the field of politics, or other philosophers, are pretty well-known in China. Today, everything is geared towards English. But the Chinese Government has registered that that is not good. Apart from English as a lingua franca, there is a need to promote other foreign languages too. Everyone knows that you can get by everywhere with English. Does German have a high status at universities "only" as a second or third foreign language - or also as a first one?