German Online Sources Of Texts

The Project has identified many online repositories of literary texts online, which are grouped here for your reference.
Of course these may not be online forever and we cannot be responsible if they disappear!
The links on this page were checked in August 2015.

Please also see the sources provided by Multilingual sites, where German is also included.

German

Latest:

http://www.deutschalsfremdsprache.ch/index.php?SUBJECT=&actualid=5057&which_set=101
Variety of texts from Switzerland.

http://learnoutlive.com/german-short-stories-beginners/

Dornröschen - dual language version: [http://germanstories.vcu.edu/grimm/dorn_dual.html]

Schneekönigin - audio versions
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMIf_P8doJg]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8Hm3zZGgRI]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Cdmp6Nf2Og]

Resources via the Goethe-Institut and other cultural partners, include as examples only:

http://aufdeutsch.co.uk/uber-den-schriftsteller-max-frisch/.

http://www.goethe.de/ins/gb/lon/lhr/stu/ks2/en3113902.htm

http://www.ukgermanconnection.org/?location_id=922

Stories and rhymes
http://www.childrensbooksforever.com/childrenpages/German1.html*
Stories

Struwwelpeter
http://germanstories.vcu.edu/struwwel/vorwort_dict.html

Lessing Fabeln
http://www.udoklinger.de/Deutsch/Fabeln/Lessing.htm

Lieblingsmärchen kostenlos per E-Mail
http://internet-maerchen.de/mpe.htm

Sources of poems:
http://www.gedichtsuche.de/gedichte-fuer-kinder.html
Lovely site with children's poems divided up by theme (including seasons, Mother's Day, animals, nature, Christmas etc). Although they contain quite complex language, the fact that they are clearly themed mean they would be suitable for (scaffolded) vocabulary and pronunciation work for all ages, as well as acting as prompts for creative tasks, and providing stimulus material for particular times of year.

http://www.aphorismen.de/suche?f_thema=Kind&f_rubrik=Gedichte
Poems not for, but about, children. Searchable by author, and, usefully, time period, which may be of use for teachers of older students, allowing scope for comparative work. Variety of lengths and types, which also allows for comparative work and work on text structure etc.

http://www.schule-und-familie.de/gedichte-fuer-kinder.html
Attractive and well organised site with a large bank of poems for children, divided very usefully into groups 'for every occasion' including birthdays, Valentine's Day, Christmas, Easter etc, as well as some which would support cultural work about Germany, including advent, 'Nikolaus' 'Fasching', 'Namenstag', 'Pfingsten' etc. A particularly nice section on the start of school, including poems about the German 'Schultuete' which could be used for start of term activities.

http://www.heilpaedagogik-info.de/kinder/gedichte.html
Lovely site with large bank of children's poems, divided by theme, (seasons, animals etc). Each poem has information in simple German about the author and links to further information, and some have a Youtube link showing the poem as video or slide show. Some of the poems are in fact puzzles or riddles, and there is also a particularly nice section on 'Abzaehlreime' (counting rhymes).

http://www.kinder-alles-fuer-kids.com/kinder-gedichte/kurze-kindergedichte.html
Recommended by @BablakeMFL

Counting rhymes
http://blogs.transparent.com/german/german-counting-rhymes-abzahlreime/

Kinderreime
http://german.about.com/library/weekly/aa030414a.htm
http://www.educreuse23.ac-limoges.fr/elve/peda/supports/compt/comptall.htm
German rhymes

http://www.gedichte-fuer-alle-faelle.de/kindergedichte/
http://www.kinder-alles-fuer-kids.com/kinder-gedichte/kinder-gedichte.html
http://deutschlich.wordpress.com/2009/11/26/mit-gedichten-deutsch-lernen/
this claimed Mit Gedichten Deutsch lernen.
- a really big site with videos about famous Germans and tutorials about how to compose a poem, among other things. My impression is that the material could better be used with more advanced students.

https://www.bildungsserver.com/inhalt.php?rnr=281&bisb=59c6dd58ea76497dcf91349084669cb9
http://vs-material.wegerer.at/deutsch/d_gedicht.htm

http://www.schulzens.de/Grundschule/Allgemeines/Gedichte_1/gedichte_1.html
- 9 collections

http://gedichte.xbib.de/dichtergalerie_1.html
Deutsche Dichterinnen und Dichter der vergangenen acht Jahrhunderte,

Jokes, songs, tonguetwisters, slang
http://leicht-deutsch-lernen.com/jokes

Songs / Kinderlieder
http://www.deutschlern.net/index.php?module=curs&link=cindex&show=941
http://www.listwoo.com/top-ten-german-international-hit-songs/
What I love about this site is the interactivity. This would be a brilliant ICT room lesson where you could get students to listen to all the songs, write their own (brief) reviews and then vote for their favourites. It would be brilliant to take a screen-shot at the start of the lesson and then see at the end how much their votes have affected the overall scores.

http://www.vistawide.com/german/german_music/kinderlieder/kinderlieder.htm

http://www.onlylyrics.com/top-videos-german.php

http://www.goethe.de/ins/gb/lon/prj/pop/son/enindex.htm
What’s great about this site is that it is updated, so new songs feature all the time, introducing students to new artists they haven’t heard of and bringing them up to date with German music. The site also has downloadable resources for teachers, making it easy to bring these fun activities straight into the classroom. The video links will be much appreciated by students as they bring the songs to life and provide an opportunity for reflecting on the cultural aspects of the music – how do the singers and groups present themselves? Is this the same as music videos students have seen in English or other languages? Why? How is it the same or how is it different?

http://www.mamalisa.com/?lang=German&t=fl

http://www.herbert-fritz.de/kinderlieder_framefree.html
This site gives the text of many well-known folk songs, such as Grün, grün, grün, which I have used with Y7 beginners, when they are learning the colours. However, personally I would rather go to YouTube, where you can find the song, the text and visuals, whereas this site only gives text and melody. It seems quite a comprehensive list though, so might be a useful starting point, if one were looking for a song. Many songs contain language which is not too difficult or could easily be adapted.

http://ingeb.org/kinderli.html
Comprehensive, if a little dated in appearance, collection of traditional (and some obscure!) German children's songs and rhymes, many with sound file and sheet music. Searchable alphabetically. Could be used for pronunciation practice with all ages, and would provide plenty of material for older students learning about rhyme, text construction etc, as many of the songs work well as poems too.

German folk songs
http://ingeb.org/

http://www.musicanet.org/robokopp/Volksoam.html

Periodicals
http://www.vistawide.com/german/german_periodicals.htm

Kinderlexikon
http://kids.t-online.de/kinderlexikon-das-verstaendliche-nachschlagewerk-fuer-kinder-/id_41426682/index
This site uses interesting questions to draw readers into exploring themes: it features texts on a wide range of non-fiction themes

http://medienwerkstatt-online.de/lws_wissen/vorlagen/showcard.php?id=15738&edit=0
Non-fiction texts - biography - what German-speaking children read about …

  • Francis Drake
  • Einstein
  • Darwin
  • Columbus
  • Braille
  • Curie
  • famous writers

http://www.schule-und-familie.de/tipps-fuer-grundschueler/beruehmte-persoenlichkeiten/wer-war-albert-einstein.html
and other biographies of famous people

German TV
http://www.fluentu.com/german/blog/watch-german-tv-online/

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License