Quick paragraphs to test your students’ German reading comprehension. This page features links to free downloadable worksheets with short German reading texts for various language levels. The texts are usually accompanied by multiple-choice questions to test German reading comprehension. The texts can also be used for other classroom purposes, such as freestyle questions, classroom discussions, role play, dictations etc. Some of the texts on this page are based on longer, bilingual articles on our . If that is the case, additional related activities such as vocabulary or grammar exercises may be available on the blog page.
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B (reading text with questions, separable prefix exercise, and vocabulary)
B (reading text with comprehension exercise)
B (reading text with questions and imperative exercise)
B / I (reading text with true/false questions, vocabulary exercise, and simple past exercise)
B (The Pied Piper of Hamelin, with comprehension and vocabulary exercises)
B / I (complete a short text with words from a word bank)
B (reading text with questions and vocabulary exercise)
(a children’s poem by Heinrich Hoffmann) B
B (reading text and vocabulary/comprehension exercises)
B (easy pdf reading text, true/false questions and vocabulary)
B / I (famous poem by Heinrich Heine, with comprehension questions and vocabulary match-up)
B / I (reading text with comprehension and vocabulary exercises)
(poem by Joachim Ringelnatz): ; .
Die Trümmerfrauen: with verb questions. Also available as an . B / I
B (reading text with match-up vocabulary exercise and short future tense exercise)
B (easy reading text with vocabulary exercises)
B (fun story by Joachim Ringelnatz; with vocabulary and comprehension exercises)
(very easy reading text with bilingual illustrations for airport vocabulary) B
(Kinderlied) B / I () ()
(based on Grimm fairy tale) B
Keeping dogs in the city of Cologne B (about a website on)
B / I (reading text about the emergency number 112, with true/false questions)
B (reading text and comprehension questions about a family)
B/I (reading text about a fictitious caveman family; with vocabulary exercises and simple past exercise)
B (reading text with questions and exercises)
B (reading text with questions and dative exercise; summary of the movie “Mostly Martha”)
B (reading text with exercises on vocabulary and adjective endings)
B (reading text with questions and three exercises)
? Somebody has stolen Oma Oppenheimer’s apple pie. Help her find the thief by eliminating suspects. Beginner-level online exercise. B
B / I ()
B / I (focus on reflexive pronouns and verbs); an of the story that focuses on the reflexive pronouns (could be used as a follow-up to the reading passage)
Many for reading comprehension, usually with vocab and/or grammar exercises.
Many short with audio, reading comprehension, and vocab exercises
Many free , mostly for early learners, but often with specific vocabulary like weather, clothing etc.
A with lots of worksheets, online exercises, and general information.
Easy and free ; intended for early readers, but can be used very well by beginner-level German students as well. The books are available in 7 languages so that different languages could be compared. Audio files for the books and games are also available.
Many , with lots of illustrations, to practice reading. No activities, but a good length to use for reading comprehension.
A couple of with vocab from Der Deutschraum.
Large pdf file with various created by the Landesschulrat Tirol. Very usable for German as a foreign language.