In my paper, I will address some of the terminology issues related to the symposium. I will suggest the make use of the German term “Fachdidaktik” for delineating the academic activities and the discipline of our concern. I will also look into Anglo-Saxon and French equivalents or into differences of conceptualising and naming this field of study respectively. The second part of my paper will identify some of the central issues of Fachdidaktik, independent of regional or local embeddings; for example: How do different groups of scholars or “schools” of thought arrive at a theory of subject-specific learning and teaching (or basic elements thereof?). How is the relationship between content, knowledge acquisition and skills development conceptualised? How are the teaching and learning processes in the classroom studied and modelled? What role does the institutionalisation of subject education play and what are the effects of a relatively compartmentalised curriculum (German: Fächerschule)? What are the indispensable areas of didactic competence and qualification that each subject teacher should have? Finally, I will explicitly raise the question why European perspectives are of interest and in demand.