Verbmobil is a long-term project on the translation of spontaneous language in negotiation dialogs. We describe the goals of the project, the chosen discourse domains and the initial project schedule. We discuss some of the distinguishing features of Verbmobil and introduce the notion of translation on demand and variable depth of processing in speech translation. Finally, the role of anytime modules for efficient dialog translation in close to real time is described. The long-term vision behind the project Verbmobil is a portable translation device that you can carry to a meeting with speakers of other foreign languages and it will translate what you say for them.