The Catalan Consultancy Process is a passionate historical moment. Being German, and/nliving in Barcelona, I am a witness of how this Catalan reality is understood in Germany./nThere seems to be a general disagreement or scepticism in terms of this independence/nprocess. Parting from a linguistic perspective and being aware of the persuasive power of/nmass media, the present study was designed to analyze the language used in the main/nGerman media in order to determine if there could be any influences in such perception./nTherefore, we reviewed up to 88 articles and editorials in 12 newspapers, from which we/nchose 44 as the most relevant examples. Those examples were selected with the main focus/non linguistic features such as phraseological and metaphorical units, which, according to/nTrew, could reveal “the ideology or set of values inherent in the discourse”1/n. The results have been highly revealing: The linguistic analysis of the main German media shows a/npolitical bias, designed on purpose to influence public opinion, using specific linguistic/nresources. Also it demonstrates a clear lack of information on the economical and political background of Catalan motivation towards the consultancy process. Hence, this analysis turns out to be a useful tool to understand what is written between the lines and to outline further investigations and actions necessary for the German understanding of the process.

Mithilfe der sprachlichen Analyse von Zeitungsartikeln wird ermittelt, wie die deutschen Medien den katalanischen Unabhängigkeitsprozess darstellen. Laut Experten der Medienlinguistik, ermöglicht die Verwendung sprachlicher Mittel eine selektive Darstellung der Realität in der Berichterstattung. Die Analyse zeigt eine starke Manipulation der Nachrichten durch die Sprache in zahlreichen Veröffentlichungen.