Merkel ally lashes out at Berlin's 'elitist German hipsters' who only speak English

One of Chancellor Angela Merkel's closest allies has criticised "elitist German hipsters" for choosing to speak English in Berlin.

Jens Spahn, a junior finance minister in Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU), wrote in German newspaper Die Zeit that he takes issue with Germans who speak to one another in English.

He said that Germans who decide to speak English rather than their mother tongue do not come across as "cosmopolitan" but instead reveal a "provincial self-dwarfishness."

Spahn caused controversy earlier this month with similar remarks.

During an interview with the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung he said: "It is increasingly getting on my nerves that in some Berlin restaurants the waiters only speak English. No one in Paris would have such a crazy idea." He added that "every immigrant should be expected to speak German."

In his article in Die Zeit, Spahn argues that Germans who deliberately refuse to speak their own language contribute to a new form of "elitist global tourism" and deter non-native speakers and migrants from learning German.

"In Berlin a totally new type of parallel society has developed: young people from around the world who keep to themselves," the article reads.

The politician argues that by choosing to only speak English, well-educated Germans are presenting themselves as "elitists." He draws a comparison between their use of English and German aristocrats embracing French as the language of the elite in the 19th Century.

Spahn, who aged just 22 became the youngest person ever elected to the Bundestag in 2002, is the latest German politician to call for the national language and culture to be conserved.

In May, interior minister Thomas de Maiziere called for a 'leitkultur', a dominant German culture, to improve social cohesion and integration.