Free German stories for beginners, level by level

A0 stories (6)

• Hallo, ich heiße Anna: Anna from Berlin introduces herself: her job, her flat and her lazy cat.
• Meine Familie: Jonas, ten, from Munich, describes his family, his grandparents' garden and the old dog.
• Im Café: Two friends order breakfast in a café in Cologne: coffee, tea and a roll with cheese. In Germany people often pay separately.
• Meine Stadt: Hamburg: Finn presents Hamburg: the port, the rain, fish rolls and the Sunday fish market.
• Mein Tag: Martin Huber is a baker in a village in Bavaria. His day starts at three in the morning.
• Eine Postkarte von Rügen: Lisa writes to her grandma from Rügen, an island in the Baltic Sea: white cliffs, wind and cold water.

A1 stories (6)

• Pläne für Samstag: Sophie and Leon plan a Saturday in Munich: the market, the English Garden and a beer garden. But the weather has other plans.
• Die Woche von Emre: Emre is a nurse in Berlin. He talks about his shifts, his German course and his Sundays at Tempelhofer Feld.
• Die neue Wohnung (Der grüne Schlüssel, episode 1): Lena moves into an old flat in Berlin-Kreuzberg. Behind a kitchen drawer she finds a small green key, and her old neighbour turns pale when she sees it.
• Ein WG-Zimmer in Köln: Paul from Kassel needs a room in Cologne. He visits a shared flat (a WG) in Ehrenfeld and has a lot of questions.
• Tür Nummer drei (Der grüne Schlüssel, episode 2): Lena and her friend Jonas go down to the courtyard at midnight. Behind door three, lots of clocks are ticking, but the clockmaker's has been closed for years.
• Ein Monat in Zürich: Julia from Hamburg spends a month working in Zurich. Swiss usage in the story: Grüezi (hello), Velo (bike), merci (thanks), and ss instead of ß in Swiss spelling.

A2 stories (5)

• Die Geschichte von Frau Krüger (Der grüne Schlüssel, episode 3): Over tea and apple cake, Frau Krüger tells Lena about Karl Albrecht, the clockmaker who left for Leipzig in 1989 and never came back.
• Die Sommer bei meiner Oma: A father remembers the summers he spent as a child on his grandmother's farm in the Black Forest: cows, an ice-cold lake, cherry gateau, and why Grandma always won at cards.
• Die Standuhr (Der grüne Schlüssel, episode 4): Lena, Jonas and Frau Krüger open the grandfather clock. Inside is a box with a ring, a letter from 1989 and an address in Leipzig.
• Das verlorene Handy: The narrator leaves her phone on a tram in Cologne the evening before a job interview, and spends a long evening waiting for news.
• Krank in Wien: Tom falls ill on a winter holiday in Vienna. Austrian words in the story: Jänner (January), Servus (hello) and Ordination (a doctor's practice).

B1 stories (5)

• Die letzte Uhr (Der grüne Schlüssel, episode 5): Lena and Frau Krüger take the train to Leipzig. In a small clockmaker's workshop they find out why Karl never came back, and Greta finally gives her answer.
• Die Trompete im dritten Stock: In a Munich apartment building, someone starts playing the trumpet every evening, very badly. The neighbours are furious, until they find out who it is.
• Eine E-Mail an meinen Bruder: Hannah writes to her younger brother Luca, who is starting an apprenticeship at a shipyard in Hamburg: advice on the weather, the people and loneliness. Hamburg words: Moin (hello, at any time of day) and Schietwetter (lousy weather).
• Das Repair-Café: Once a month, in a community centre in Cologne, broken things are repaired for free: a toaster, a teddy bear and a lamp tell the story.
• Homeoffice: Segen oder Fluch?: An opinion piece: since the pandemic many people in Germany work from home. The author weighs the arguments and comes down in favour.

B2 stories (4)

• Redaktionsschluss: A young reporter at a Hamburg newspaper wants to publish a story about a building scandal tonight. Her editor has doubts.
• Die Finanzierungsrunde: The two founders of a Berlin vegetable-delivery start-up need money. An investor has an offer, and it splits them.
• Der Streit um die Glocken: News-style story: newcomers from Frankfurt take a Bavarian village's church bells to court. Includes the Bavarian word Preißn.
• Gewitter an der Hütte: A full mountain hut above Grindelwald, a sudden storm and two guests who haven't come back from the summit.

C1 stories (3)

• Im Kaffeehaus: Wry portrait of a Viennese coffee house, its waiter, a regular and a doomed attempt at modernisation. Austrian words: Ober, Melange.
• Herbst 89: A student asks her mother, once a nurse in Leipzig, about 1989 for a seminar paper, and hears more than the history-book version.
• Befristet: Feature on a historian in Göttingen on her latest fixed-term contract, writing yet another grant proposal. Includes the language of grant applications.

C2 stories (3)

• Aus dem Protokoll: Satire in the form of minutes: an appointment committee for a professorship, reported in Konjunktiv I by a student representative who notices more than she should.
• Über das Wort Heimat: Essay on the history and misuse of the German word Heimat, ending with Ernst Bloch's idea of Heimat as a promise.
• Eine Sitzgelegenheit: An exchange of letters: a Berlin district office refuses to replace a bench in impeccable official German, and an 83-year-old resident answers in kind.

Where can I read free German stories for beginners?

SparkAI has 32 graded German stories from A0 to C2, plus 7 starter readings for your first days, all free. Each has tap-to-translate, audio for any word or sentence you tap, and comprehension questions.

What level should I start reading at?

As early as you can: start with the stories at your level, and move up when you understand most of a page without looking things up. Reading a little every day does more than a long session once a week.

Where are the stories set?

Around the German-speaking world, mostly in Germany, with some in Austria and Switzerland. Where a story uses a regional word, the meaning is given.

What comes after the stories?

Classic German books: 16 public-domain books in the same reader.