This study deals with the partly commented German translation (1804) of A. I. Silvestre de Sacy’s general grammar (18032) by J.S. Vater, himself the author of two general grammars (1801, 1805). It sets out to explain the context, motivations and certain results of this translation, whose very existence is surprising insofar as it was published in a period of intense Franco-German hostility, with a strong intellectual resonance, in competition with the translator's own works, and even though the original language, French, was commonly mastered by its reasonably intended readership, i.e. German scholars, teachers, and academics. The study shows, inter alia, that the network of orientalists to which the author and the translator belonged were able to stand aside from the political situation, and that the translator took advantage of his translation to propagate his own linguistic analyses, which partly conflicted with those of the translated work.