THE GROWING international relevance of English has left its traces on the German language. Accordingly, research on the phenomenon of Anglicisms in German has intensified in the second half of the 20th century. The last decade, however, brought such a rapid development in mass communication, including the still wider spread of English, that some traditional views on Anglicisms have been challenged. This article discusses such issues as the problematic nature of classifying Anglicisms, the processes of integration of Anglicisms, and the multi-faceted motivations for their use in German.