Das Rom-Projekt: Ein Rückblick nach über zwanzig Jahren

This article examines the long-term development of multilingual language acquisition in German-Italian families following the "Rome Project." Based on written qualitative online-interviews with German-speaking parents, the experiences and assessments regarding the multilingual development of their offspring since 2007 are analyzed. During the project phase (2001-2007), three groups of families were identified: bilingual families, families with language shift to Italian, and families with reversal of language shift. The present study investigates whether this classification has remained unchanged to date. The investigation illustrates how these families have evolved since 2007 and the challenges they have faced in maintaining the heritage language German, while also discussing the “Three-Generation Rule”.