View source for German Wikipedia

{{Short description|German-language edition of Wikipedia}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{Update|date=April 2023|reason=Much of the article focuses on the mid-2000s. While there is some recent information, it's by far the minority of the article}}
{{Self-reference cleanup}}
{{Circular|date=June 2025}}
}}
{{Infobox website
| name = {{Wiki favicon}} German Wikipedia
| logo = [[File:Wikipedia-logo-v2-de.svg|German Wikipedia logo]]
| screenshot = File:De Wikipedia Hauptseite (hochauflösend).png
| collapsible = yes
| caption = Main Page of the German Wikipedia in March 2023
| url = {{URL|de.wikipedia.org}}
| commercial = No
| launch_date = {{start date and age|2001|3|16|df=y}}
| type = [[Internet encyclopedia project]]
| language = [[German language|German]]
| registration = Optional
| owner = [[Wikimedia Foundation]]
| editor = German-language [[Wikipedia community]]
| content_license = {{nobr|[[Creative Commons licenses|Creative Commons Attribution/<br/>Share-Alike]] 4.0}} (most text also dual-licensed under [[GFDL]]).<br/>Media licensing varies.
}}

The '''German Wikipedia''' ({{langx|de|Deutschsprachige Wikipedia}}) is the [[German-language]] edition of [[Wikipedia]], a free and publicly editable [[online encyclopedia]].

Founded on 16 March 2001, it is the second-oldest Wikipedia edition (after the [[English Wikipedia]]). It has {{NUMBEROF|ARTICLES|de|N}}&nbsp;articles, making it the {{Ordinal to word|{{Wikipedia rank by size|de}}}}-largest edition of Wikipedia by number of articles {{As of|2024|lc=y}}, behind the English Wikipedia and the mostly bot-generated [[Cebuano Wikipedia]].<ref name="List1">[[meta:List of Wikipedias|Wikimedia list of Wikipedias and their statistics.]] meta.wikimedia.org. Retrieved 5 January 2025.</ref><ref name="JWales01">[http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2001-March/000049.html Jimmy Wales <nowiki>[Wikipedia-l]</nowiki>] Alternative language Wikipedias, lists.wikimedia.org, 16 March 2001</ref><ref name=":0">[https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikipedias/Table List of Wikipedias/Table] meta.wikimedia.org, Statistics</ref> It has the second-largest number of edits and of active users behind the English Wikipedia.<ref name="List1" /> On 7 November 2011, the German Wikipedia became the second edition of Wikipedia, after the English edition, to exceed 100&nbsp;million page edits.

== History ==

=== Early history ===
[[File:Hauptseite12801024.png|thumb|Main Page of the German Wikipedia in May 2004]]
The German edition of Wikipedia was the first non-English Wikipedia subdomain, and was originally named {{mono|deutsche.wikipedia.com}}. Its creation was announced by [[Jimmy Wales]] on 16 March 2001.<ref name="JWales01" /> One of the earliest snapshots of the home page, dated 21 March 2001 (revision&nbsp;#9), can be seen at the [[Wayback Machine]] site.<ref>Internet Archive's snapshots of German Wikipedia [https://web.archive.org/web/20010425083506/http://deutsche.wikipedia.com/wiki.cgi?action=browse&id=HomePage&revision=9 HomePage], 21 March 2001 12:10 (revision #9), and related [https://web.archive.org/web/20010408205505/http://deutsche.wikipedia.com/wiki.cgi?action=history&id=HomePage revision history]. Retrieved 4 November 2008.</ref> Aside from the home page, creation of articles in the German Wikipedia started as early as April 2001, apparently with translations of [[Nupedia]] articles.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20010411030440/http://deutsche.wikipedia.com/wiki/Nupedia_Deutsch-L_Sektion "Nupedia German-L Section"] (6 April 2001), [https://web.archive.org/web/20010424025539/http://deutsche.wikipedia.com/wiki/Nupedia_Deutsch-L_Sektion/Vergil "Vergil"] (16 April 2001), [https://web.archive.org/web/20010424024043/http://deutsche.wikipedia.com/wiki/Nupedia_Deutsch-L_Sektion/Pylos "Pylos"] (17 April 2001).</ref> After the [[Catalan Wikipedia]], the German Wikipedia was the second non-English edition to contain articles. The earliest article still available on Wikipedia's site is apparently [[:de:Polymerase-Kettenreaktion|Polymerase-Kettenreaktion]], dated May 2001.<ref>[http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Polymerase-Kettenreaktion&oldid=2613 "Polymerase-Kettenreaktion"] article on German Wikipedia showing edit dated May 2001.</ref>

[[Andrew Lih]] wrote that the hacker culture in Germany and the {{lang|de|[[Eingetragener Verein|Verein]]}} concept solidified the German Wikipedia's culture. The geography of Europe facilitated face-to-face meetups among German Wikipedians.{{sfn|Lih|2009|p=147}}

=== Growth, coverage and popularity ===
{| align="right"
|-
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|titlebar=#ddd
|width=300px
|bars=
{{bar percent|{{DEU}}|blue|77.0}}
{{bar percent|{{AUT}}|blue|8.0}}
{{bar percent|{{CHE}}|blue|5.4}}
{{bar percent|{{USA}}|blue|1.3}}
{{bar percent|Other|blue|8.3}}
}}
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{| align="right"
|-
| {{bar box
|title=Origin of page edits (October 2012 – September 2013)<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://stats.wikimedia.org/wikimedia/squids/SquidReportPageEditsPerLanguageBreakdown.htm#German |title=Wikimedia Traffic Analysis Report – Page Edits Per Wikipedia Language – Breakdown |website=stats.wikimedia.org |access-date=28 August 2024 |archive-date=17 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210417161523/https://stats.wikimedia.org/wikimedia/squids/SquidReportPageEditsPerLanguageBreakdown.htm#German |url-status=dead }}</ref>
|titlebar=#ddd
|width=300px
|bars=
{{bar percent|{{DEU}}|Red|83.4}}
{{bar percent|{{AUT}}|Red|7.0}}
{{bar percent|{{CHE}}|Red|4.1}}
{{bar percent|{{ITA}}|Red|0.6}}
{{bar percent|{{USA}}|Red|0.5}}
{{bar percent|Other|Red|4.4}}
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|}

[[File:Artikelzahl in dewiki 01 (fcm).png|thumb|upright=1.1|Article growth]]
On 27 December 2009, the German Wikipedia exceeded 1,000,000&nbsp;articles,<ref>[http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Spezial:Statistik&uselang=en Statistics] of German Wikipedia (English). ''German Wikipedia''.</ref> becoming the second edition, after the [[English Wikipedia|English-language Wikipedia]] to do so. The millionth article was [[:de:Ernie Wasson|Ernie Wasson]]. In March 2014, 88% of the edition's articles had more than 512&nbsp;[[byte]]s, 57% had more than 2&nbsp;[[kilobyte]]s, and the average article size was 4,298&nbsp;bytes.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesWikipediaDE.htm |title=Wikipedia Statistics – Tables – German |website=stats.wikimedia.org |access-date=26 August 2024 |archive-date=21 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220121080411/http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/TablesWikipediaDE.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> As of August 2025, the German Wikipedia has nearly 990,000 biographies and 360,000 disambiguation pages.<ref>{{cite web |title=Liste der Biografien |url=https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_der_Biografien |website=German Wikipedia |publisher=Wikimedia Foundation |access-date=22 August 2025}}</ref><ref name="disamb">{{cite web |title=Kategorie:Begriffsklärung |url=https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kategorie:Begriffsklärung |website=German Wikipedia |publisher=Wikimedia Foundation |access-date=22 August 2025}}</ref>

As of January 2025, the German Wikipedia is the fourth most viewed language edition of Wikipedia, after the English, [[Japanese Wikipedia|Japanese]] and [[Russian Wikipedia]]s.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://analytics.wikimedia.org/dashboards/vital-signs/#projects=eswiki,itwiki,enwiki,jawiki,dewiki,ruwiki,frwiki/metrics=Pageviews |title=Vital Signs: Pageviews |access-date=22 August 2025 |website=Wikimedia}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Wikimedia projects comparison [public] |date=January 2025 |publisher=Wikimedia |url=https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1a-UBqsYtJl6gpauJyanx0nyxuPqRvhzJRN817XpkuS8/edit?gid=2092166039#gid=2092166039&range=E:E}}</ref>

The German edition tends to be selective in its coverage, often rejecting small stubs, articles about individual fictional characters and similar materials. Instead, there is usually one article about all the characters from a specific fictional setting, usually only when the setting is considered important enough (for example, all [[:de:Figuren aus Star Wars|characters from ''Star Wars'']] are listed in a single article). A dedicated article about a single fictional entity generally exists only if the character in question has a very significant impact on popular culture (for example, [[:de:Hercule Poirot|Hercule Poirot]]).<ref name="relev" /> Andrew Lih wrote that German Wikipedia users believe that "having no article at all is better than a very bad article."{{sfn|Lih|2009|p=148}} Therefore, growth on the German Wikipedia leveled before it did for the English Wikipedia, with accelerating growth in article count shifting to constant growth in mid-2006. The number of users signing up for accounts began to steadily decline in 2007 through 2008.{{sfn|Lih|2009|p=148}}

[[File:Active editors on German Wikipedia over time.png|thumb|upright=1.1|Active editors from 2003–2018; the top curve shows editors with more than five edits per month on content pages.]]
[[File:Benutzer angemeldet.png|thumb|upright=1.1|Number of registered users between 2001 and May 2006]]
The number of volunteer authors began to stagnate in 2007 and has decreased since then. In Germany, the number of regularly active authors fell by more than a third from the peak of 9,254 at the beginning of 2008 to 5,862 at the end of 2015.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dobusch |first=Leonhard |title=Warum Wikipedia nach 15 Jahren in der Krise steckt |url=https://www.sueddeutsche.de/digital/online-lexikon-warum-wikipedia-nach-15-jahren-in-der-krise-steckt-1.2816858 |access-date=2022-01-30 |website=[[Süddeutsche Zeitung]] |date=15 January 2016 |language=de}}</ref>

The January 2005 [[Google Zeitgeist]] announced that "Wikipedia" was the eighth most-searched query on {{mono|www.google.de}}. In February 2005, Wikipedia reached third place behind [[Firefox]] and [[Valentine's Day]]. In June 2005, Wikipedia ranked first.

=== Lack of diversity, decline of authors and paid editing ===
On the 20th anniversary of Wikipedia, the German-language edition faced a number of problems. According to German media the most significant are a lack of diversity, a decline in active users and the influence of paid editing. While in 2006 there were 8,614 active authors in the German Wikipedia, in December 2018 there were only 5,262. Active Wikipedians only saw about 300 people as the "hard core" of the German Wikipedia who write articles. 

As the number of authors decreases, the influence of a few increases, researchers found. The scientist [[Taha Yasseri]] describes those authors as "super editors" who write an excessive number of Wikipedia articles and thus keep the community project alive. It is problematic when "super editors" dominate much-discussed articles, build up an elite circle among themselves and "defend" their area.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Giessler |first=Denis |date=2021-01-15 |title=Wikipedia wird 20 Jahre alt: Ungleich verteiltes Wissen |language=de |work=Die Tageszeitung: taz |url=https://taz.de/!5739248/ |access-date=2023-07-26 |issn=0931-9085}}</ref> 

German Wikipedia has been criticized for [[conflict-of-interest]] manipulations by [[Wikipedia:Paid-contribution disclosure|paid editors]] who overwhelm a small number of [[Wikipedia administrators|administrators]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-09-03 |title=Absolut diskret: So entlarvt Böhmermann Wikipedia-Manipulationen |url=https://www.br.de/nachrichten/kultur/absolut-diskret-so-entlarvt-boehmermann-wikipedia-manipulationen,Shwtnez |access-date=2022-01-22 |website=BR24 |language=de}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-01-23 |title=Nach Kritik: DFB entschuldigt sich wegen geändertem Wikipedia-Artikel |url=https://www.fr.de/sport/fussball/deutscher-fussball-bund-dfb-wikipedia-seite-friedrich-curtius-general-sekretaer-statement-90172530.html |access-date=2022-01-22 |website=www.fr.de |language=de}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Lobe |first=Adrian |date=25 June 2019 |title=Gekaufte Wahrheiten auf Wikipedia |url=https://www.sueddeutsche.de/digital/wikipedia-werbung-manipulation-schleichwerbung-wissen-1.4496890 |access-date=2022-01-22 |website=Süddeutsche.de |language=de}}</ref>

With the withdrawal of users and an interpretation of the rules that is not always perceived as appropriate, German Wikipedia can hardly counter the influence of lobby groups and [[paid editing]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Drosdowski |first=Johannes |date=2022-04-24 |title=Enthüllung über Bundesbehörden: Geweihe und Corona-Boni |language=de |work=Die Tageszeitung: taz |url=https://taz.de/!5846956/ |access-date=2023-07-26 |issn=0931-9085}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-06-09 |title=Wikipedia: Handlungsbedarf bei bezahltem Schreiben |url=https://netzpolitik.org/2022/wikipedia-handlungsbedarf-bei-bezahltem-schreiben/ |access-date=2023-07-26 |website=netzpolitik.org |language=de}}</ref>

{{As of|2022|post=,}} the size of the German Wikipedia database is about 6&nbsp;gigabytes.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Technik/Datenbank/Download&oldid=207346209 |title=Wikipedia:Technik/Datenbank/Download |date=6 January 2021 |website=German Wikipedia |language=de}}</ref>

== Language and varieties of German==
Separate Wikipedias have been created for several other varieties of German, including [[Alemannic German]]&nbsp;([[:als:]]), [[Luxembourgish language|Luxembourgish]]&nbsp;([[:lb:]]), [[Pennsylvania Dutch language|Pennsylvania German]]&nbsp;([[:pdc:]]), [[Ripuarian language|Ripuarian]] (including [[Colognian dialect|Kölsch]];&nbsp;[[:ksh:]]), [[Yiddish]]&nbsp;([[:yi:]]), [[Low German]]&nbsp;([[:nds:]]) and [[Austro-Bavarian|Bavarian]]&nbsp;([[:bar:]]). These however, have less popularity than the German Wikipedia.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/Sitemap.htm|title=Wikipedia Statistics – Site map|website=stats.wikimedia.org|access-date=12 August 2023|archive-date=11 July 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150711204915/http://stats.wikimedia.org/EN/Sitemap.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> There are also the [[Dutch Low Saxon]]&nbsp;([[:nds-nl:]]) and the [https://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/pdt/Hauptsied Mennonite Low German Wikipedia].

== Characteristics ==
[[File:Verhaeltnis.png|thumb|upright=1.1|Daily requests for deletion, de facto deleted articles and the ratio of these two values]]
The German Wikipedia is different from the English Wikipedia (and other Wikipedias) in a number of aspects.
* Compared to the English Wikipedia, different criteria of [[Notability in Wikipedia|notability]] are expressed through the judgments of the editors for deciding if an article about a topic should be allowed. The criteria for notability are more specific; each field has its own specific guidelines.<ref name="relev">{{cite web |url=http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=55275214 |title='Relevanzkriterien' (notability guidelines) |access-date=13 January 2009 |date=13 January 2009 |website=German Wikipedia |language=de}}</ref>
* There are no [[fair use]] provisions. Images and other media that are accepted on the English Wikipedia as fair use may not be suitable for the German Wikipedia.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=55164140#Fair_use |title=Bildrechte |trans-title=Image rights |website=German Wikipedia |access-date=13 January 2009 |date=10 January 2009 |language=de}}</ref> 
* The use of [[scholarly]] sources, in preference over journalistic and other types of sources, is more strongly encouraged. The German Verifiability (''Belege'') guideline classifies scholarly sources as inherently more reliable than non-academic sources; the latter's use is only permitted if there is a lack of published academic sources covering a topic.<ref>[[:de:Wikipedia:Belege|Wikipedia:Belege]]. ''German Wikipedia'' (in German).</ref>
* In September 2005, [[Erik Möller]] voiced concern that "long term page protection is used excessively on the German Wikipedia":<ref>[[Erik Möller]]: [http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2005-September/019177.html Wikipedia page protection report] Wikitech-l mailing list, 14 September 2005</ref> on 14 September 2005, 253 pages had been in a fully protected state (only editable by admins) for more than two weeks. This was the highest total of any of the Wikipedias, with the second-highest being 166 pages in the [[Japanese Wikipedia]] and 138 in the English Wikipedia.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Longest_page_protections%2C_September_2005 |title=Longest page protections, September 2005 - Meta |publisher=Meta.wikimedia.org |access-date=20 December 2010}}</ref> {{As of|2008|5}}, the German Wikipedia still had the highest percentage of semi-protected articles (articles not editable by unregistered or recently registered users)&nbsp;– 0.281%&nbsp;– among the ten largest Wikipedias, but in terms of the fraction of fully protected articles (0.0261%) it ranked fourth, behind the Japanese, [[Portuguese Wikipedia|Portuguese]] and English Wikipedias.<ref>Tim 'avatar' Bartel: [http://article.gmane.org/gmane.science.linguistics.wikipedia.deutsch/22318 Entsperrung der Wikipedia] WikiDE-l mailing list, 28 May 2008 07:45:55 GMT</ref>
* Articles on indisputably notable subjects may be deleted if they are deemed too short. While the requirements for minimal articles (called stubs) are equivalent, the German and the English Wikipedia differ greatly in the way they are put into practice.<ref>[[Wikipedia:Stub]], [[:de:Wikipedia:Stub]]{{primary source inline|date=August 2021}}</ref>
* On 28 December 2005, it was decided to eliminate the Category "stub" (and the corresponding template identifying articles as [[wikipedia:stub|stubs]]) from the German Wikipedia.<ref>[[:de:Wikipedia:Meinungsbilder/Stubs|German Wikipedia:Poll about the abolishment of the stub template]], 28 December 2005</ref>
* Users do not have to create an account in order to start a new article.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Hilfe:Benutzer |url=https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilfe:Benutzer#Nicht_angemeldete_Benutzer |quote=Nicht angemeldete Benutzer können Seiten in der Wikipedia einsehen, bearbeiten und anlegen. |trans-quote=Unregistered users can view, edit, and create pages on Wikipedia.}}</ref>
* Unlike the [[Cebuano Wikipedia|Cebuano]], [[Polish Wikipedia|Polish]], [[Dutch Wikipedia|Dutch]], [[Italian Wikipedia|Italian]], [[Swedish Wikipedia|Swedish]] or many other Wikipedias, the German one does not contain large collections of [[internet bot|bot-generated]] geographical stubs or similar articles. On 2025-10-22 there are just 62 bots.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Statistik |url=https://w.wiki/7dGH |access-date=2025-10-22}}</ref> 
* The German Wikipedia version did not have an [[Arbitration Committee (English Wikipedia)|Arbitration Committee]] until May 2007. 
* There is usually no need to classify a person with his or her gender (biological or [[Grammatical gender|grammatical]]), if the gender is undetermined; but in some places like ''list of female Nobel prize laureates'' is needed. All nouns are in masculine gender for persons like {{Lang|de|Bürger}}, and it will not be written in {{Lang|de|Bürger*in}} or other [[Gender neutrality in languages with grammatical gender|gender-neutral]] forms.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Wikipedia:Generisches Maskulinum |date=18 April 2025 |url=https://w.wiki/Fmu5}}</ref>
* The equivalent to the English Wikipedia's [[Wikipedia:Featured articles|featured articles]] and [[Wikipedia:Good articles|good articles]] are [[:de:Wikipedia:Exzellente Artikel|exzellente Artikel]] (''excellent articles'') and [[:de:Wikipedia:Lesenswerte Artikel|lesenswerte Artikel]] ({{Literal translation|articles worth reading}}).
* In 2005, there was a discussion and poll resulting in the decision to phase out the use of local image uploads and to exclusively use [[Wikimedia Commons]] for images and other media in the future.<ref>[[:de:Wikipedia:Meinungsbilder/Archiv/Bilder hochladen nur noch in Commons|German Wikipedia: Poll about uploading images exclusively in Wikimedia Commons]]</ref> The attempt to implement this lasted for about a year and the German "Upload file" page displayed a large pointer to Commons in this time, but since December 2006, there is again a local image upload page without any pointer to Wikimedia Commons. This was prompted by the deletion of images on Commons that are acceptable according to German Wikipedia policies.<ref>[[:de:Wikipedia:Fragen zur Wikipedia/Archiv/2007/Woche 11#Spezial:Hochladen und Commons|German Wikipedia: Question regarding image upload and Wikimedia Commons]]</ref>
* Starting in December 2004, German Wikipedians pioneered Persondata ("Personendaten"), a special format for [[meta data]] about persons (name, birth date and place, etc.), introduced in the English Wikipedia in December 2005. In the beginning, the main aim of this system was to aid the search features of the DVD edition of the German Wikipedia (see below). During its introduction in January 2005, ''Personendaten'' were added to some 30,000 biographical articles on the live Wikipedia, partly aided by a somewhat automatic tool.<ref>Jakob Voss: [[m:Transwiki:Wikimania05/Paper-JV2|Metadata with Personendaten and beyond]] (presentation at [[Wikimania 2005]])</ref> As of October 2025, the template is used in more than 1 million articles.<ref>[https://templatecount.toolforge.org/?lang=de&namespace=10&name=Personendaten#bottom Use of Personendaten template in German Wikipedia], October 30, 2025.</ref>
* Like ''[[The Signpost]]'' in the English Wikipedia, the German Wikipedia also has its own internal newspaper, {{Lang|de|Kurier}}. However, the ''Kurier'' is laid out on a single page and is not issued weekly but is continually updated by interested Wikipedians, with older articles being archived.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Wikipedia:Kurier |url=https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Kurier}}</ref>

=== Reviewed versions ===

At [[Wikimania 2006]], [[Jimmy Wales]] announced that the German Wikipedia would institute a system of "[[Flagged Revisions|stable article versions]]", also known as sighting, on a trial basis. The system went live in May 2008. Certain users, so-called "''active sighters''", are now able to mark article versions as "reviewed", indicating that the text contains no obvious vandalism. A note in the top right corner of the screen indicates to the reader whether or not the present version of an article has already been reviewed, and provides access to the most recent reviewed version or a more current, unreviewed version as needed.

The German Wikipedia has two levels of ''sighting'' status which act like the [[English Wikipedia]]'s [[WP:PCPP|pending changes protection]]: ''Passive sighter'' and ''Active sighter''. The former is able to make changes to articles go live immediately if the last edit is marked as sighted, while only the latter allows manually reviewing pending changes.

== Miscellanea ==
[[File:Fünf Jahre Wikipedia IMG 0377.JPG|thumb|upright=1.1|The exhibition, "Five Years of Wikipedia", at the [[University of Göttingen]] library, March 2006]]
===Events ===
The first real-life meetup of Wikipedians took place in October 2003 in [[Munich]]. As a result of this meeting, regularly striking round tables (called "Wikipedia-Stammtisch") established themselves at various places in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The round tables have become an important aspect of collegial exchange within the German-speaking community.<ref>[[:de:Wikipedia:Stammtisch|German Wikipedia: Round tables]]</ref>

Each spring and autumn, the German Wikipedia organizes a writing contest, where a community-elected jury rates nominated articles. Prizes are sponsored by individual community members and companies. The first contest was held in October 2004&nbsp;– the article [[:de:Kloster Lehnin (Kloster)|Kloster Lehnin]] (Lehnin Abbey) was selected as the winner from 44 nominated articles. The second contest, held in March 2005, saw 52 contributions, and the third, in September 2005, 70. A trial to extend the contest to an international level met with limited success, with only the Dutch, English and Japanese Wikipedias participating.<ref>[[meta:International writing contest|International writing contest]], March 2005.</ref>

For the March 2006 writing contest, the 150 nominated articles were split into three sections: history and society (56 nominations), arts and humanities (36), and science (46). The article on the [[:de:Braunbär|Brown Bear]] (German: ''Braunbär'') won, and of the nominated 27&nbsp;articles reached featured status a few weeks after the contest.<ref>[[:de:Wikipedia:Schreibwettbewerb|Writing contest]] {{in lang|de}}</ref> In March 2007, the sixth contest was held, with the winner being the article on the [[:de:Haager Konvention zum Schutz von Kulturgut bei bewaffneten Konflikten|Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict]] (German: ''Haager Konvention zum Schutz von Kulturgut bei bewaffneten Konflikten'').

German Wikipedians organized the first international Wikipedia conference, [[Wikimania 2005]], in August 2005 in [[Frankfurt]]. Some 300 people from over 50 countries attended the three-day conference.

From 17 March to 15 April 2006, the [[Göttingen State and University Library]] held a special exhibition documenting the first five years of Wikipedia.<ref>[[:de:Wikipedia:Ausstellung|Exhibition "Fünf Jahre Wikipedia]], [[:commons:Category:Fünf Jahre Wikipedia|exhibition charts and photos]]</ref>

In 2006, the [[University of Göttingen]] hosted the first [[:de:Wikipedia:Academy|Wikipedia Academy]]. The academy was intended to familiarize the academic world with Wikimedia projects. In 2007, the second such meeting took place, organized in conjunction with the [[Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur]] (''Academy of Science and Literature'') in [[Mainz]] as part of the German [[:de:Jahr der Geisteswissenschaften|Jahr der Geisteswissenschaften]] (''Year of the [[Humanities]]''), which was decreed by the German [[Federal Ministry for Education and Research (Germany)|Federal Ministry for Education and Research]]. A third meeting was organized on 20–21 June 2008 in [[Berlin]], during the Jahr der Mathematik (''Year of Mathematics''); the meeting was hosted by the [[Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities]].<ref>Wikipedia Academy [http://www.wikipedia-academy.de/ web site] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060413202404/http://www.wikipedia-academy.de/ |date=13 April 2006}} {{in lang|de}}</ref>

German Wikipedians have since organised the [[:de:Wikipedia:Fotoworkshop|Foto-Workshop meeting of photographers]], with participants from 10 countries.

=== Contacts with ''Brockhaus'' ===

In April 2004, a complete list of article titles from the leading German encyclopedia ''[[Brockhaus encyclopedia|Brockhaus]]'' was uploaded to the German Wikipedia, in an apparent attempt to facilitate the creation of missing articles. A representative of ''Brockhaus'' asked for and obtained the deletion of what was believed to be a copyright infringement. As a result of the developing email conversation, a group of five Wikipedians visited the "new media" group of ''Brockhaus'' in [[Mannheim]] on 1 July 2004.<ref>Report: [[meta:Wikipedia meets Brockhaus|Wikipedia meets Brockhaus]]</ref> The friendly meeting saw a lively discussion of the differing approaches to writing an encyclopedia; it became clear that ''Brockhaus'' had closely observed Wikipedia for quite some time.

=== Subsidies from the German government ===

In June 2007, a project on [[renewable resource]]s ([[:de:Wikipedia:WikiProjekt Nachwachsende Rohstoffe|WikiProjekt Nachwachsende Rohstoffe]]) was initiated,<ref>nova-Institut (26 June 2007): [http://www.nachwachsende-rohstoffe.info/nachricht.php?id=20070626-02 Nachwachsende Rohstoffe in die Wikipedia!] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080203214012/http://www.nachwachsende-rohstoffe.info/nachricht.php?id=20070626-02 |date=3 February 2008}} Press release. Retrieved 24 October 2007.</ref><ref>Fachagentur Nachwachsende Rohstoffe (FNR) e. V.[http://www.fnr-server.de/cms35/index.php?id=911&tabelle=fnr_projekte%20%20&alles=1&status=Inhalt&fkz=22028206&suche=Wikipedia&suchefkz=Nummer%20eingeben!&sucheadresse=Namen%20eingeben!&von=01.04.1992&bis=24 October 2007&zeitraum=Formular&minz=0&maxz=1&anzahl=10&zurueck=1 Projektbeschreibung: Nachwachsende Rohstoffe im Wikipedia-Online-Lexikon]{{Dead link|date=March 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes}}. Retrieved 24 October 2007.</ref> the goal being to write and improve articles on the topic. The project was run for three years and was subsidized by the [[Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (Germany)|German Ministry of Agriculture]] with approximately €80,000 a year. It was organised and managed by the private company "nova-Institut GmbH". Nova GmbH and Wikimedia Deutschland e.&nbsp;V. funded the project with approximately €60,000 a year in addition, so the budget was approximately €420,000 in total.{{citation needed|date=December 2010}}

These funds were mainly used to organise the project and also to search for experts in the field who have not contributed to Wikipedia yet. Nova may also have paid expense allowances to authors.<ref>nova-Institut: [http://www.nova-institut.de/wikipedia/ Nachwachsende Rohstoffe in die Wikipedia!] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081002214338/http://www.nova-institut.de/wikipedia/ |date=2 October 2008}} Project page. Retrieved 31 July 2008.</ref>

=== Most-disputed articles ===
[[File:Donauturm Vienna top from S on 2013-06-14.png|thumb|upright|The observation decks and spire of the Donauturm]]
According to a 2013 [[Oxford University]] study, the article on [[Croatia]] was the most disputed article on the German Wikipedia. The top ten most disputed articles then also included [[Adolf Hitler]], [[Scientology]], and [[Rudolf Steiner]].<ref>Gross, Doug. "[http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/24/tech/web/controversial-wikipedia-pages/index.html?hpt=hp_t5 Wiki wars: The 10 most controversial Wikipedia pages]." ([https://web.archive.org/web/20160423125124/http://edition.cnn.com/2013/07/24/tech/web/controversial-wikipedia-pages/index.html?hpt=hp_t5 Archive]) ''[[CNN]]''. 24 July 2013. Retrieved on 26 July 2013.</ref> One of the largest disputes about simple sentences, however, concerned the [[Donauturm]] in Vienna.<ref name="spi" /> Whilst the observation tower shares some architectural aspects with the [[Fernsehturm Stuttgart]], it was never planned for TV broadcasting purposes. The German Wikipedia had a rather lengthy (about 600,000&nbsp;characters) discussion about the suitable title and categories, inasmuch as numerous Austrian authors denied the description of Donauturm as a "TV tower".<ref name="spi">[http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-70131151.html Spiegel 19.04.2010, INTERNET, Im Innern des Weltwissens], Mathieu von Rohr</ref> The ''[[Der Spiegel|Spiegel]]'' coverage of the issue cited a participant with "On good days, Wikipedia is better than any TV soap".<ref name="spi" />

== Reviews and research ==
In September 2004, the computer magazine ''[[c't]]'' compared the German Wikipedia with the [[Brockhaus encyclopedia|Brockhaus Multimedia encyclopedia]] and the German edition of [[Microsoft]]'s ''[[Encarta]]''. On a scale from 0 to 5, Wikipedia ranked first with a score of 3.4.<ref>[http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/sj/2004/10/04 Experts report : passion outclasses flashy sex appeal (Wikipedia)] 4 October 2004</ref> A few weeks later, the weekly newspaper {{Lang|de|[[Die Zeit]]}} also compared content from Wikipedia with other reference works and found that Wikipedia only has to "share its lead position in the field of natural science."<ref name="Zeit04">{{Cite web |last=Schult |first=Thomas J. |date=2004-10-14 |title=Lernen vom Schinken in Scheiben |url=https://www.zeit.de/2004/43/C-Enzyklop_8adien-Test |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240829154708/https://www.zeit.de/2004/43/C-Enzyklop_8adien-Test/komplettansicht |archive-date=2024-08-29 |access-date=2024-08-29 |website=[[Die Zeit]] |language=de}}</ref> The DVD version of Spring 2005 received a rather negative review by Björn Hoffmann&nbsp;– product manager working for the [[Brockhaus Enzyklopädie|Bibliographisches Institut & F.A. Brockhaus]] in July 2005.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hoffmann |first=Björn |date=2005-07-07 |title=Rezension zu: Directmedia Publishing (Hrsg.): Wikipedia Frühjahr 2005. Die freie Enzyklopädie |trans-title=Review of: Directmedia Publishing, Wikipedia Frühjahr 2005: Die freie Enzyklopädie |url=http://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/rezensionen/2005-3-017 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/EI1uc/again?url=http://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/rezensionen/2005-3-017 |archive-date=2013-01-05 |access-date=2024-08-30 |website=[[H-Soz-Kult|H-Soz-u-Kult]] |language=de}}</ref>

In November 2005 the OpenUsability project in cooperation with the Berlin-based Relevantive AG conducted a usability test of the German Wikipedia.<ref>[http://www.openusability.org/forum/forum.php?forum_id=703 Usability test: Finding Information in the German Wikipedia - Test Results] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060506043331/http://openusability.org/forum/forum.php?forum_id=703 |date=6 May 2006}} November 2005</ref> The study focused on finding information and included a set of recommendations to change the MediaWiki interface. In February 2006, the open usability project led a second test which focused on the experience of new editors.<ref>[http://www.openusability.org/forum/forum.php?forum_id=820 Usability Test Results Available: "Editing in Wikipedia"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060429004553/http://openusability.org/forum/forum.php?forum_id=820 |date=29 April 2006}}, 7 March 2006</ref> The reports were published in English.

A second test by ''c't'' in February 2007 used 150 search terms, of which 56 were closely evaluated, to compare four digital encyclopedias: [[Bertelsmann]] Enzyklopädie 2007, Brockhaus Multimedial premium 2007, Encarta 2007 Enzyklopädie and Wikipedia. With respect to concerns about the [[reliability of Wikipedia]], it concluded: "We did not find more errors in the texts of the free encyclopedia than in those of its commercial competitors".<ref>Dorothee Wiegand: "Entdeckungsreise. Digitale Enzyklopädien erklären die Welt". c't 6/2007, 5 March 2007, p. 136-145. Original quote: "Wir haben in den Texten der freien Enzyklopädie nicht mehr Fehler gefunden als in denen der kommerziellen Konkurrenz"</ref>

In December 2007, German magazine ''[[Stern (magazine)|Stern]]'' published the results of a comparison between the German Wikipedia and the online version of the 15-volume edition of ''[[Brockhaus Enzyklopädie]]''. The test was commissioned to a research institute (Cologne-based WIND GmbH), whose analysts assessed 50&nbsp;articles from each encyclopedia (covering politics, business, sports, science, culture, entertainment, geography, medicine, history and religion) on four criteria (accuracy, completeness, timeliness and clarity), and judged Wikipedia articles to be more accurate on average (1.6 on a scale from 1 to 6, versus 2.3 for ''Brockhaus'' with lower = better). Wikipedia's coverage was also found to be more complete and up to date; however, ''Brockhaus'' was judged to be more clearly written, while several Wikipedia articles were criticized as being too complicated for non-experts, and many as too lengthy.<!--"Einige Wikipedia-Artikel sind für Laien schlicht zu kompliziert, viele zu weitschweifig, urteilten die Tester."--><ref>''Wikipedia: Wissen für alle''. Stern 50/2007, 6 December 2007, pp. 30-44</ref><ref>''[http://www.stern.de/computer-technik/internet/:stern-Test-Wikipedia-Brockhaus/604423.html Wikipedia schlägt Brockhaus]'' Stern online, 5 December 2007 (summary of the test, German)</ref><ref>K.C. Jones: ''[http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=204702694 German Wikipedia Outranks Traditional Encyclopedia's Online Version] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071212231601/http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=204702694 |date=12 December 2007}}''. [[InformationWeek]], 7 December 2007 <!--Note: This article incorrectly reports that Wikipedia articles were "judged ... more ... easy to read", in fact this was the one of the four areas where ''Brockhaus'' reached a better result (1.8 vs. 2.4 for Wikipedia) --></ref>

In 2015, a group of young historians reviewed the [[:de:Massaker von Katyn|Massaker von Katyn]] article, which was deemed "excellent" by Wikipedia authors. They pointed out more than 130 factual errors and remarked that the article completely ignores new scientific literature.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Urban|first=Thomas|title=Wikipedia: Über hundert Fehler, super!|url=https://www.sueddeutsche.de/digital/wikipedia-ueber-hundert-fehler-super-1.2784114|access-date=2022-01-22|website=Süddeutsche.de|date=16 December 2015 |language=de}}</ref>

== Off-line publication ==
=== CD November 2004 ===
In November 2004, [[Directmedia Publishing|Directmedia Publishing GmbH]] started distributing a CD-ROM containing a German Wikipedia snapshot. Some 40,000&nbsp;[[compact disc|CD]]s were sent to registered customers of directmedia. The price was 3&nbsp;[[euros]] per CD.<ref name="Zeit04"/>

The display and search software used for the project, ''Digibib'', had been developed by Directmedia Publishing for earlier publications; it ran on [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]] and [[Mac OS X]] (and later also on [[Linux]]). The Wikipedia articles had to be converted to the [[XML]] format used by ''Digibib''.<ref name="cd2004">{{cite web |title=Publikationen/CD 2004 |url=https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Archiv/Publikationen/CD_2004 |website=German Wikipedia |publisher=Wikimedia Foundation |access-date=September 5, 2024}}</ref>

To produce the CD, a dump of the live Wikipedia had been copied to a separate server, where a team of 70 Wikipedians vetted the material, deleting nonsense articles and obvious copyright violations. Questionable articles were added to a special list, to be reviewed later. The final CD contained 132,000&nbsp;articles and 1,200&nbsp;images.<ref name="cd2004"/><ref>{{Cite web |last=Kleinz |first=Torsten |date=2004-10-14 |title=Wikipedia-CD zum Download |url=https://www.heise.de/news/Wikipedia-CD-zum-Download-108790.html |access-date=2024-09-05 |website=heise online |language=de}}</ref>

The [[ISO image]] was distributed for free via [[eMule]] and [[BitTorrent (protocol)|BitTorrent]]. In December, the [[CHIP (magazine)|CHIP computer magazine]] placed the Wikipedia data on the [[Digital Versatile Disk|DVD]] that it distributes with every issue. The Wikipedia materials are published under [[GNU Free Documentation License|GFDL]] while the ''Digibib'' software may only be copied for non-commercial use, except the Linux version which is [[GNU General Public License|GPLed]].

=== CD/DVD April 2005 ===
{{Unreferenced section|date=September 2008}}
[[File:Wikipedia 2005 Label DVD small.PNG|thumb|upright=1.1|DVD label of German off-line Wikipedia publication]]
A new release of Wikipedia content was published by Directmedia on 6 April 2005. This package consisted of a 2.7&nbsp;GB DVD and a separate bootable CDROM (running a version of Linux with Firefox). The CDROM did not contain all the data, but was included to accommodate users without DVD-drives. The DVD used Directmedia's ''Digibib'' software and article format; everything could be installed to a hard drive. In addition, the DVD contained an HTML tree, as well as Wikipedia articles formatted for use with [[Personal digital assistant|PDA]]s (specifically, the [[Mobipocket]] and [[TomeRaider]] formats).

The production of the DVD motivated the ''Personendaten'' project (see above).

The vetting process was similar to the one for the CD described above and took place on a separate MediaWiki server. The process took about a week and involved 33 Wikipedians, communicating on [[Internet Relay Chat|IRC]]. To prevent duplication of work, editors would protect every article that they had reviewed; links to protected articles were shown in green. Lists of potential spammed or vandalized articles had been produced ahead of time with SQL queries. Unacceptable articles were simply deleted on the spot. While the XML articles for the earlier CD version had been produced from HTML, this time a script was used to convert Wiki markup directly to the ''Digibib'' format. The final DVD contained about 205,000&nbsp;articles, with every article linking to a list of contributors.

Directmedia sold 30,000 DVDs, at €9.90 each. This price included 16% taxes and a one-euro donation to ''Wikimedia Deutschland''; production costs were about €2.
The DVD image can also be downloaded for free.

Following the successful launch of the DVD, Directmedia donated high-resolution pictures of 10,000 public domain paintings to [[Wikimedia Commons]] (see [[Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2005-05-02/Commons donation|related ''Signpost'' story]]).

=== DVD/book December 2005 ===

[[File:Wikipedia!.jpg|thumb|The 2005 DVD/book version of German Wikipedia]]
The next edition of Wikipedia content was issued in December 2005 by the publisher Zenodot Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, a sister company of Directmedia. A 139-page book explaining Wikipedia, its history and policies was accompanied by a 7.5&nbsp;GB DVD containing 300,000&nbsp;articles and 100,000&nbsp;images. The book with DVD is sold for €9.90; both are also available for free download.<ref>Torsten Kleinz (9 December 2005). [https://www.heise.de/news/Neue-Wikipedia-DVD-im-Handel-und-zum-Download-156168.html Neue Wikipedia-DVD im Handel und zum Download]. Heise newsticker {{in lang|de}}.</ref>

The vetting process for this version was different and did not involve human intervention. A "[[white list]]" of trusted Wikipedians was assembled, the last 10&nbsp;days of every article's history were examined, and the last version edited by a white-listed Wikipedian was chosen for the DVD. If no such version existed, the last version older than 10&nbsp;days was used. Articles nominated for cleanup or deletion were not used.

=== DVD December 2006/2007 and 2007/2008 ===

The December 2006–2007 and 2007–2008 edition can be downloaded from {{mono|dvd.wikimedia.org}}.

=== Books ===

==== Wikipress series ====

The December 2005 book about Wikipedia was the first in a series titled ''Wikipress''. These books, published by Zenodot, consisted of a collection of Wikipedia articles about a common topic, selected and edited by so-called "Wikipeditors" who may receive compensation from Directmedia. The books were assembled on a separate server from those used for the regular German Wikipedia pages. Every ''Wikipress'' book was accompanied by an "edit card", a post card that readers could send in to edit the book's contents. ''Wikipress'' books about the [[Nobel Peace Prize]], [[bicycle]]s, [[Antarctica]], the [[Solar System]], and [[Hip hop]], amongst others, were released, and other books on topics as diverse as [[Whales]], [[Conspiracy theories]], [[Manga]], [[Astrophysics]], and the [[Red Cross]] were in the works.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wikipress.de |title=Hauptseite |language=de |publisher=Wikipress.de |access-date=20 December 2010}}</ref> Due to lack of interest, the project was ended after a few books.{{Citation needed|date=April 2008}}

==== 100 volume Wikipedia ====

The publisher Zenodot announced in January 2006 that they intend to publish the complete German Wikipedia in print, 100&nbsp;volumes with 800&nbsp;pages each, starting with the letter A in October 2006, followed by two volumes each month thereafter, to end with Z in 2010. The project, code named WP&nbsp;1.0, was to be supported by 25 editors employed by Zenodot as well as a scientific advisory board. Changes made to articles before publication would also be available for incorporation into the online Wikipedia.

In March 2006, Zenodot organized a "community day" to meet with Wikipedians and discuss the project. Groups of Wikipedians had already begun to polish articles with titles Aa-Af in selected topics. In late March it was announced that the project was put on hold and no books would be published in 2006; the reason given was that community support was lacking.<ref>Heise newsticker: [http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/71231 Wikipedia wird noch nicht gedruckt], 24 March 2006 {{in lang|de}}</ref>

====Bertelsmann====
On 22 April 2008, the publisher [[Bertelsmann]] announced that it planned to publish a one-volume encyclopedia in September using content from the German-language Wikipedia. The volume was planned to include abbreviated entries for the 50,000 most commonly used search terms of the prior two years. The book is priced at 19.95&nbsp;euros, with one euro from every sale going to the German chapter of the [[Wikimedia Foundation]].<ref>[http://www.france24.com/en/20080423-wikipedia-print-germany-internet-bertelsman-encyclopaedia "Wikipedia to go book-based in Germany"], [[Agence France-Presse]], 23 April 2008</ref> It was released on 15 September 2008 in hardcover, containing 992&nbsp;pages and many illustrations.

== Legal issues and controversies ==
=== Deletions ===
[[File:Vergleich Löschungen Zuwachs.png|thumb|upright=1.1|Comparison of the number of new articles and deletions in the German Wikipedia between January 2008 and October 2010]]
The German Wikipedia has been criticized for the deletion of articles because they seem "irrelevant" to those who deleted them, even though they seem expedient, meaningful, well written and extensive enough to other people. These discussions have received press coverage in computer magazines as well as in mainstream media.<ref>[http://www.pro-linux.de/news/1/11063/weitere-loeschungen-von-linux-distributionen-aus-wikipedia-vorgeschlagen.html "Further deletions of Linux distributions in Wikipedia proposed" article in a Linux computer magazine] 10 April 2007</ref><ref>[http://www.heise.de/ct/artikel/Wikipedia-Der-Kampf-um-die-Relevanz-846332.html "Wikipedia: The fight for relevance"] in [[c't]] computer magazine 30 October 2009</ref><ref>[http://winfuture.de/news,50763.html "Wikipedia: Dispute about arbitrary deletions" article in a Windows computer magazine] 19 October 2009</ref><ref>[https://archive.today/20120907224724/http://www.gulli.com/news/wikipedia-weltmeister-beim-l-schen-2009-12-27 "Wikipedia: World champion in deleting?" on gulli.com news] 27 December 2009</ref><ref>[http://unterhaltung.t-online.de/daniela-katzenberger-wikipedia-will-daniela-katzenberger-loeschen/id_42262356/index Article about the planned deletion of a Wikipedia article about a TV celebrity] on the news portal of [[Deutsche Telekom|T-Home]] (biggest ISP in Germany) 16 July 2010</ref>

=== Unauthorized uses ===
While everyone is free to use Wikipedia content, there are certain conditions, such as attribution, a copy of the license text and no non-free [[derivative work]]s (see [[Creative Commons licenses]] and [[GNU Free Documentation License]] for details).

In March 2005, the German news magazine ''[[Der Spiegel]]'' published an article on the [[Rwandan genocide]] in its online edition; it was a copy of Wikipedia's article. The article was taken down soon after and replaced with an apology.<ref>[http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2005-03-09-n29.html German Spiegel Copied Wikipedia] 9 March 2005</ref>

In April 2005, the encyclopedia ''Brockhaus'' published an article about the new pope [[Josef Ratzinger]] in its online edition. Because of its close similarity to Wikipedia's article, suspicion arose right away that the ''Brockhaus'' article might have been plagiarism. The article was removed soon after but ''Brockhaus'' did not apologize or admit guilt (see ''[[The Signpost]]''{{'s}} {{srlink|Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2005-05-09/Brockhaus plagiarism suspected|coverage}}).

=== Large-scale copyright infringement (2003–2005) ===

In mid-November 2005, it was discovered that an anonymous user had entered hundreds of articles from older encyclopedias that had been published from the 1960s to the 1980s in [[East Germany]]. The articles were mainly on topics in philosophy and related areas. The user had started in December 2003.

A press release was issued and numerous editors started to remove the copyright protected materials. This was made difficult by the fact that the old encyclopedias were not online and not easily available from many West German libraries, and that the user had used numerous different IP addresses. The Directmedia DVD had to be updated.<ref>[[:de:Wikipedia:DDR-URV|Report on copyright infringement]]</ref>

=== Bertrand Meyer article hoax ===

On 28 December 2005, the article about [[computer scientist]] [[Bertrand Meyer]] (creator of the [[Eiffel (programming language)|Eiffel programming language]]) was edited by an anonymous user, falsely reporting that Meyer had died four days earlier. The hoax was reported five days later by the [[Heinz Heise|Heise News Ticker]] and the article was immediately corrected. Major news media in Germany and Switzerland picked up on the story. Meyer himself went on to publish a positive evaluation of Wikipedia, concluding, "The system succumbed to one of its potential flaws, and quickly healed itself. This doesn't affect the big picture. Just like those about me, rumors about Wikipedia's downfall have been grossly exaggerated."<ref>[http://www.eiffel.com/general/monthly_column/2006/January.html Defense and illustration of Wikipedia] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060322022226/http://www.eiffel.com/general/monthly_column/2006/January.html |date=22 March 2006}}, by Bertrand Meyer, January 2006</ref>

=== Naming Tron ===

In 2006, Wikimedia Deutschland, the German chapter of the US [[Wikimedia Foundation]], was drawn into a legal dispute between the parents of the deceased German computer hacker [[Tron (hacker)|Boris "Tron" Floricic]] and the Foundation.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/web/0,1518,394374,00.html |title=Spiegel online article (German) |publisher=Spiegel.de |date=10 January 2006 |access-date=20 December 2010}}</ref> The parents did not wish Floricic's real name to be publicly mentioned, and in December 2005 they obtained a preliminary injunction in a [[Berlin]] court against the American [[Wikimedia Foundation]], requiring removal of Floricic's name from Wikipedia. The name was not removed. On 19 January 2006 they obtained a second injunction, this time against Wikimedia Deutschland, prohibiting the address <code>www.wikipedia.de</code> (which is under control of Wikimedia Deutschland) to redirect to the German Wikipedia at <code>de.wikipedia.org</code> (which is controlled by the Wikimedia Foundation and hosts the actual encyclopedia) as long as Wikipedia mentioned Floricic's name. Wikimedia Deutschland complied and replaced the redirect with a note explaining the situation, but without mentioning the Tron case specifically. The German Wikipedia remained accessible through <code>de.wikipedia.org</code> during this time. One day later, Wikimedia Deutschland achieved a suspension of the injunction, and linked from the note at <code>www.wikipedia.de</code> to the German Wikipedia. On 9 February, the court invalidated the injunction, ruling that neither the rights of the deceased nor the rights of the parents were affected by publishing the name; this ruling was upheld on appeal, decided 12 May.

=== Lutz Heilmann controversy ===

In November 2008, [[Lutz Heilmann]], a member of the [[German parliament]], obtained a preliminary injunction against Wikimedia Deutschland e.&nbsp;V., forbidding the forwarding of <code>www.wikipedia.de</code> to <code>de.wikipedia.org</code>. According to [[Focus (German magazine)|Focus Online]], Heilmann objected to claims that he had not completed his university degree, and that he had participated in a business venture involving [[pornography]]. The report also suggests that the Wikipedia article had been repeatedly altered in line with his claims by an anonymous user operating within the [[Bundestag|Bundestag building]], but Heilmann denied having been involved in an edit war. [[Wikimedia Germany]] displayed a page explaining the situation. Heilmann announced on 16 November that he would drop the legal proceedings against Wikimedia Deutschland, regretting that many uninvolved users of the encyclopedia had been affected.{{Citation needed|date=October 2024}}

===Superprotect and Media Viewer controversy===
In 2014, the [[Wikimedia Foundation]] (WMF) "''superprotected''" a JavaScript file on German Wikipedia so that no German editors, not even administrators, were allowed to edit it. This was in response towards controversy surrounding the new [[Wikipedia:Media Viewer|Media Viewer]] (see ''[[The Signpost]]''{{'s}} {{srlink|Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2014-08-13/News and notes|coverage}}). Many German editors left over this dispute.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.heise.de/news/Wikipedia-Superprotect-Streit-spitzt-sich-zu-2293513.html|title=Wikipedia: Superprotect-Streit spitzt sich zu|first=heise|last=online|date=16 August 2014|website=heise online}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.golem.de/sonstiges/zustimmung/auswahl.html?from=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.golem.de%2Fnews%2Fsuperschutz-wikimedia-stiftung-zwingt-deutschen-nutzern-mediaviewer-auf-1408-108522.html|title=Golem.de: IT-News für Profis|website=www.golem.de}}</ref> An open letter to the WMF was signed by almost 1,000 [[Wikimedia movement|Wikimedians]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Letter_to_Wikimedia_Foundation:_Superprotect_and_Media_Viewer&oldid=15850369|title=Letter to Wikimedia Foundation: Superprotect and Media Viewer|date=19 August 2014|publisher=[[m:Project:About|meta.wikimedia.org]]|access-date=21 August 2016}}</ref> In April 2015 [[Erik Möller#Deputy Director|Erik Möller]] left the WMF; the "''superprotect''" feature was disabled in November.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Superprotect&oldid=15458743|title=Superprotect|date=2015|publisher=[[m:Project:About|meta.wikimedia.org]]|access-date=21 August 2016}}</ref>

===Reiss Engelhorn Museum===
In 2015, the [[Reiss Engelhorn Museum]] sued the WMF and its German chapter [[List of Wikimedia chapters|Wikimedia Deutschland]] for alleged copyright violations of 17 public domain pictures.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blog.wikimedia.org/2015/11/23/lawsuit-public-domain-art/|title=Wikimedia Foundation, Wikimedia Deutschland urge Reiss Engelhorn Museum to reconsider suit over public domain works of art|author1= Michelle Paulson|author2=Geoff Brigham|publisher=[[Wikimedia Foundation|Wikimedia blog]]|date=23 November 2015|access-date=21 August 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://hyperallergic.com/259382/museum-sues-wikimedia-for-hosting-copyrighted-photos-of-its-public-domain-artworks/|title=Museum Sues Wikimedia for Hosting Copyrighted Photos of Its Public-Domain Artworks|author=Benjamin Sutton|date=8 December 2015|access-date=21 August 2016|publisher=[[Hyperallergic]]}}</ref>

== Parodies and forks ==

In the millennium years, parodies of the German Wikipedia include ''Kamelopedia'', created in April 2004, [[Stupidedia]], created in December 2004, and the German version of [[Uncyclopedia]], created in August 2005.<ref>Chip.de: [http://www.chip.de/news/Brockhaus-fuer-Kamele-Wikipedia-Parodien_30999849.html Brockhaus für Kamele - Wikipedia-Parodien] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20120804224847/http://www.chip.de/news/Brockhaus-fuer-Kamele-Wikipedia-Parodien_30999849.html |date=4 August 2012}}, 11 March 2008 {{in lang|de}}</ref>

Ulrich Fuchs, an active early contributor to the German Wikipedia,<!-- frustrated with what he saw as the lack of quality and the inclusion of un-encyclopedic material, --> produced a fork known as ''Wikiweise'' in April 2005. It was ad-supported, used its own software (but a similar wiki markup), admitted only registered editors, and prominently displayed the real names of every article's major contributors. It has since gone offline.

==Copyright law==

On 21 March 2019, the German Wikipedia went offline to inform users about the [[European Union law|European Union]]'s copyright law reformation, the [[Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market]], which had been voted on in the [[European Parliament]] on 27 March 2019. Opponents of the reformation were concerned about the restriction of [[fundamental rights]] including a free press and the freedom of speech and arts. The blackouts' purpose was to both inform and protest this controversial decision.{{citation needed|date=May 2021}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

== Sources ==
* {{Cite book |author-link=Andrew Lih |last=Lih |first=Andrew |title=[[The Wikipedia Revolution]] |publisher=[[Hachette Books#Hyperion Books|Hyperion]] |location=New York City |year=2009 |edition=First |isbn=978-1-4013-0371-6}}

== External links  ==
{{InterWiki|code=de}}
* {{Commons category-inline}}
*[http://de.m.wikipedia.org German Wikipedia mobile version] {{in lang|de}}
*[[:meta:German Wikipedia|Meta: German Wikipedia]]
*[https://www.wikimedia.de/ Wikimedia Deutschland] {{in lang|de}}
*Publication efforts on CD/DVD {{in lang|de}}:
:*[[:de:Wikipedia:Wikipedia-CD|General description of CD]]
:*[[:de:Wikipedia:Wikipedia-Distribution|General description of first DVD]]
:*[[:de:Wikipedia:WikiPress|General description of second DVD and WikiPress]]
*WP 1.0, publication in book form {{in lang|de}}:
:*[https://web.archive.org/web/20060210221921/http://www.wp10.de/ WP 1.0], the project's home page ''(now redirects to zeno.org)''
:*[[:de:Wikipedia:Archiv/WP_1.0|WP 1.0]], discussion of the project in the German Wikipedia
*[[:de:Benutzer:Elian/Geschichte|Geschichte]], a personal history of the German Wikipedia, written by one of the core Wikipedians {{in lang|de}}
*[[Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-11-06/Interwiki report|Report from the German Wikipedia]], Wikipedia Signpost, 6 November 2006

{{Wikipedias}}
{{Wikipedias in Germanic languages}}

[[Category:Wikipedias in Germanic languages]]
[[Category:Encyclopedias in German|Wikipedia]]
[[Category:German-language websites|Wikipedia]]
[[Category:Internet properties established in 2001]]