Interesting, I hadn’t realised it had lost the case system! However, it seems to have some definite articles? The only thing is, if you wanted to then branch out into other slavic languages, maybe the lack of understanding the case system would be a disadvantage?
@michagoe If we would talk only about the influence of German language on Slavic languages, I would guess that Czech could be the best option. We use a huge quantity of German origin words, but also to be honest, we use them specially in spoken language and kind of slang. As for the declinations, we have 7 declinations, so it’s not so funny (or maybe on the contrary it’s more fun 
). It depends also on where you want to use this language, as obviously Russian would be the most used and Polish is also used by a lot of people compared to Czech and Slovakian for instance. Oh and don’t forget that Czech language has the sound Ř, which is impossible to describe in written way
I don’t want to discourage anybody from learning Czech. Czech is an amazing language, but I am conscious of the fact, that it’s difficult and you would hardly use it in different country than in CR or Slovakia.
In any case I wish you good luck with your decision!
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I agree with many others - look first at why you want to learn a Slavic language and let that guide you and then think about what motivates you when you are learning,
For example - I was randomly assigned Czech during a language challenge earlier this year. It was only for a weekend, but I found myself frustrated as it was hard to find the tools that motivate me to learn most easily (modern, colourful textbooks, music in a style I enjoy, tv shows that were easily available to watch and in genres I would enjoy). It made it harder to motivate myself to learn, even though I found the language interesting, because I am so used to learning Korean and Spanish, both of which have a wealth of materials which match both my learning style and my motivational needs. I experienced similar problems with Persian too - I have very strong desire to learn in order to talk to friends but the lack of materials have meant I often end up giving up before I even begin. Whereas I recently started learning Chinese for fun because the materials and cultural products (dramas and music) pulled me in even though it isn’t a language I have a need to learn.
If I were choosing a Slavic language right now, I would most likely go with Russian purely because I know there are great learning materials out there and that motivates me, even though I already have some basic Czech learnt and I’m half Polish (I don’t speak a word of Polish though). In maybe 2-3 years, I might change that to Polish because the learning materials and access to different media may have improved!
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I haven’t had any trouble finding materials to learn Polish. There are podcasts, websites, youtube channels, and more.
Polish is the only Slavic language I’ve seriously studied so I can’t really comment with any useful comparisons.
@michagoe I wish you the best of luck with Slavic languages! They are challenging but rewarding 
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Pronunciation- and grammar-wise, my best guess is you’ll find Bulgarian the easiest. If the Cyrillic alphabet bothers you (in spite of long practice, I still find it cumbersome to type it on a computer keyboard), I’d recommend Croatian which has a slightly more difficult grammar, but is not much harder to pronounce for a native German speaker.
Russian would be the best stepping-stone to other Slavic languages, but it’s also very difficult.
@LinkaLovesLanguages I completely understand your struggle. In case you would anyway want to continue with Czech, you can reach out to me and I will try to share all the possible materials with you. I am not a teacher, but maybe I could help you with finding some tools, study books or videos etc. (as I am Czech).
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Thank you very much for all your pieces of advice. By chance I found the website of the interslavic conlang (http://steen.free.fr/interslavic/). I think if you want to get a good overview and understanding for all slavic languages as a non-slav speaker this is ideal! So before I learn a first real slavic language I’m planning to learn interslavic. The only problem is that there is very little learning material: There is a word learning tool for a vocabulary of 217 core slavic words which in facts helps a lot, but apart from a very well written grammar with ethymological explanantions not much more… 
Does anybody of you have more experience with interslavic? Does anybody know an expanded vocabulary tool or even some kind of (online) language course? I appreciate your comments. Thank you.
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It is with interslavic like interlingua for the romance languages. A brilliant concept but only few people who use it. I added material for interlingua to the forum but I am not familiar with interslavic. I wish you success with your learning and promoting supra-cultural languages.
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