The Zagreb dialect is recognizable by the German loanwords that can be heard in it. The linguistic borrowing of German lexemes into the Zagreb dialect is the result of the linguistic contacts of Croatian with the German language and Austrian German. In the first part of the master's thesis, a theoretical overview of basic contact-linguistic concepts is given, and it focuses on the linguistic contacts of Zagreb Croatian with German. It presents the linguistic situation of the Zagreb dialect according to its phonological-phonetic characteristics, and the greatest attention is paid to Germanisms. The research part of the paper examined the use and understanding of Germanisms, which are considered to be characteristic of the Zagreb dialect. Two generations of Zagreb citizens participated in the survey, and the aim was to determine whether there are generational differences in Zagreb speech related to the frequency of use and understanding of Germanisms and what are the potential factors influencing their use. The results showed that the continuing trend of declining use and understanding of Germanisms continued. Some Germanisms have been found not to be heard at all by the younger generation, and some are no longer understood. The last part of the paper contains a methodological component with a proposal of language borrowing lessons and an additional lesson of German loanwords in the Zagreb dialect with the purpose of preserving the urban Zagreb idiom.