The article deals with the didactic and methodological principles of teaching a second foreign language in general secondary education institutions in the light of the intercultural aspect. The professional literature on the problem of organizing the educational process of teaching a foreign language and culture in general and German as a second foreign language in particular is analyzed. Attention is focused on the principles of learning as a regulator of thinking and speaking processes of understanding and generating foreign language information. The importance of adherence to the principles and their advantages in the formation of skills and abilities of foreign language communicative competence is presented. The author singles out the principle of visibility, the observance of which involves and interconnects other principles, for example: scientificity, feasibility, creativity and individualization. The rules that can dominate in the development of the educational process of teaching a second foreign language are formulated, where visibility as a didactic principle is internalized in the methodological principle of communicative approach. Examples in German of the implementation of the principle of communicativeness, in particular the principle of real authentic communication, are given. Three aspects for achieving communicative goals with the characteristics of the culture of speech are distinguished. The requirements for compiling teaching and learning materials, which are also an integral component of the educational process of teaching a second foreign language, are specified. The author describes the principle of taking into account the native language and culture, when students learn to realize the culture of the peoples of the language being taught. A comparison of linguistic features in German and Ukrainian socio-cultures is presented. The factor of the phenomenon of culture, which is thematized to students in the educational process through the prism of a foreign language and comparing the facts of the cultural experience of the peoples whose language is studied with the experience of the people whose heritage is the Ukrainian language, is highlighted.