Learning to read fluently is an important everyday skill and is essential for reading enjoyment and academic development. As such, it is important to understand what bottlenecks may prevent readers from developing fluency. Here, we examine bilingualism as a predictor of reading fluency. Specifically, it has been observed anecdotally that reading fluency may not develop, if readers did not have extensive exposure to the script during childhood (Abazdi, 2012). To test this observation more systematically, we conducted an online study. We investigated reading speed in 60 adults, reading in German, whose native language is either Albanian or Greek. Albanian is written in the same Latin script as German, while Greek is written in a different, albeit still alphabetic script. As a potential mediator, we included a task measuring fast letter recognition: A Reicher-Wheeler task, where participants identified Latin letters that were presented briefly as part of a consonant string. The results provide insights into factors which lead to reading fluency, and the role of early letter-recognition processes as a potential bottleneck.