Quote Originally Posted by Евгения Белякова
How close would you say Dutch is to German? Can you understand Dutch since you know German? I was wondering of Frankfurt because Anne Frank was from there. How many dialects are there in Germany?

(Sorry to anyone, I am off topic)
No, I don't understand Dutch. If I hear a Dutch speaker I only understand some words and phrases. But that is because I'm from southern Germany. German dialects near the Dutch boarder are quite similar to Dutch so that Germans who live in these areas often have no problems to converse with Dutch people.
I don't believe that you can give a certain number of dialects in Germany. It depends on how you define when two diealects should be looked upon as different.
In the area where I grew up I could tell from the kind how people spoke from which village they came i.e. each small village had it's own dialect. But otusiders from other areas typically could not hear any difference.