I have been trained in the early 90's by Lufthansa and I have some good friends still working for them.
As far as I know, Lufthansa still needs lots of pilots. You need to speak German as well. I think, not really to understand the ATPL theory, as it is all in German, more to be able to comunicate with people within the company, and passengers for example. I think a basic German course would be sufficent. If you lived for half a year in Germany, you would pick it up very soon.
There are three different schemes or training courses. If you pass the DLR-Test you will do another test. Based on the second one, Lufthansa decides if you are able to fly for Lufthansa itself or for its subsidiary Lufthansa Cityline (Avro, CRJ). If you get a contract with Lufthansa 'classic', you have to pay about 80.000 DM yourself. You can pay it off from your salary. If you fly with Cityline, you have to pay about (not sure) 120.000 DM. If you don't pass any of these tests, you can still do the training at their school. In this case you have to pay as much as 160.000 DM.
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