You can apply to universities as a non-degree student and study languages specifically. It's nearly impossible to learn a language without some formal education. I taught myself basic Russian when I was 13 but I still can only read and write a minimal amount because the Cyrillic alphabet is something that basically has to be formally taught. German is admittedly easier than Russian because the alphabet is nearly the same (other than the umlauts and scharfes S). Most people don't know how or when to use umlauts. Boehner is actually Böhner, for example - umlauts when anglicized become oe, ue, ae, and scharfes S usually becomes ss or sz, I think (the scharfes S is a complicated letter). Also German has a lot in common with English, especially in terms of words that arose following the industrial revolution - car is auto, telephone is telefon, so forth.
It really is a beautiful language, though. Unless you're being yelled at, in which case it is a terrifying language and you think you're about to be murdered.