German is the (co-)official language (de jure or de facto) and first language of the majority of the population  German is a co-official language, but not the first language of the majority of the population  German (or a variety of German) is a legally recognized minority language in the marked country (main distribution areas are colored; marked with square where the geographic distribution is too dispersed or small for map scale) German (or a variety of German) is spoken by a sizable minority, but has no legal recognition
Council of Europe - List of ratifications of the Charter for regional/minority languages
Other files used to compile this map
File:Karte Schweizer Sprachgebiete 2015.png
File:Deutsche Minderheit Masuren Ermland.png
File:Abstimmung-schleswig-1920.png
File:Sprachenkarte Suedtirol 2011.svg
File:Sprachen Im Elsass.svg
File:Dialectes de Moselle.svg
File:Language distribution Trentino 2011.png
File:Germanii din Romania (2002).png
File:Deutschsprachige Gemeinschaft in Belgium.svg
File:German language in gminas.png
File:German Minority Upper Silesia.png
LdU - Landesselbstverwaltung der Ungarndeutschen - Landkarte der Deutschen in Ungarn
Steinicke et al., "Autochthonous Linguistic Minorities in the Italian Alps", Journal of Alpine Research, 99-2, 2011
37ophiuchi