Free German learning resources
62 free resources, checked and categorised.
Every link is usable without paying. Some ask for a free account or keep extras behind a paid tier, and those are labelled.
German rewards early structure more than most languages. The four cases and the gender system are front-loaded: they feel arbitrary for the first month and then quietly stop being a problem once you have heard enough sentences to feel the patterns. So start with a structured course rather than app streaks, and accept a slow first few weeks.
The free material for German is unusually good: Deutsche Welle alone covers A1 to C1 with audio, video and graded news, and it is genuinely free rather than a trial. Pair one course with one dictionary and stay there until you finish it. Switching courses every fortnight is the most common way people spend a year on German and stay at A2.
Once simple sentences are comprehensible, add slow news and a podcast. German's long compounds look intimidating in writing but decompose predictably in speech, so listening often outpaces reading earlier than learners expect. Reading comes easiest through material you already know: a translated book you have read before beats a German novel you have not.
Filter resources
All resources
Textbook-style course for beginners with 16 units of grammar and reading practice, designed to help you read formal German prose with a dictionary
Free German verb conjugation trainer with over 10,000 verbs, offering tables and training modes for selected tenses, verb groups, and random practice
Four free FSI German self-study courses with PDFs and hours of audio, including Basic, Fast, Headstart, and Programmed Introduction materials
Free German grammar course with online exercises from A1 to C2, plus placement, test prep, and learning support materials
Deutsche Welle learning resources, sorted by proficiency levels. You'll find here miniseries in easy German, slowly read news summaries, articles with exercises an more.
18 German lessons with vocabulary, grammar tips, and phrases, covering alphabet and pronunciation through adverbs and animals; each lesson takes about 30 minutes
A step-by-step beginner guide with articles on German grammar, phrases, slang, culture, and study tips for learning to speak German.
C1 Learning resources for advanced learners preparing for Goethe Institut C1 Certificate.
More resources and useful tips by u/travel_ali.
Reading-and-writing lessons for Suetterlin German handwriting, with letter charts, word exercises, and guidance for reading old German scripts and blackletter
Blog post explaining Swiss German basics, with seven dialect features, a handy vocabulary list, and suggested ways to start learning it
Vocabulary trainer and mini dictionary for German with 6,000+ common words, example sentences, images, audio, and spaced-repetition practice
Streaming archive of German TV films, series, documentaries, news, sports clips, and livestreams, with many current and past videos to watch
Blog with German-learning posts, plus audio and video thematic courses, downloadable ebooks, and a free placement test for beginners to advanced learners
An online textbook from A1 to B1 level. There's also a dedicated moile app.
German-learning blog with free vocabulary, grammar, audio, video and podcast materials, plus themed dictionaries and teaching tips for reading, listening and writing practice
Archive of 192 German-language comic books and strips to read online or download, organized by genre and publication date
Free German learning courses from A1 to C1 with interactive exercises, audio, videos, vocabulary practice, grammar pages, and learner news.
German news site with current articles, headlines, and sections like politics, business, culture, science, sport, plus videos and podcasts
Web-based first-year German textbook with ten units, downloadable PDFs, and multimedia materials for reading and class practice
German A1 blog posts linking to beginner grammar, vocabulary, listening, reading, tests, exercises, videos, and printable dialog cards
German video channel with lessons and course announcements for learners, plus links to her courses and club offerings
The channel is a bit controversial, since the author isn't a native speaker, but nevertheless there are lots of resources you can find useful.
German poetry library and blog with searchable poems, author indexes, themed collections, and recently read pieces for browsing and reading
YouTube channel with German learning videos and language tips, showing learners how to study German through short, friendly explanations.
YouTube video lessons and podcast episodes on everyday German, with authentic conversations from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland plus English and German subtitles
A series of ten minute podcasts about various verbs and their meaning in context. Each episode contains about a dozen examples of the given word's usage. There's also a newsletter if you want to get a new word in your inbox every day.
A German Youtube channel for German learners, run by a native speaker.
German grammar reference with searchable topics, explanations, audio examples, and interactive exercises across multiple difficulty levels
German grammar information system with nearly 1,000 reference texts, dictionaries, corpora, and databases for studying syntax, morphology, semantics, and usage
A channel about the German language - listening material, grammar, vocabulary and more. Also available in Spanish (Alemán con Jenny).
Online German-Luschnouarisch dictionary including idioms and proverbs
Collection of practical French-Alsatian themed mini-dictionaries with PDFs and some audio, covering everyday topics like weather, town life, and public speaking
A Youtube channel about the German language - advanced grammar, pronunciation and culture.
Free German eBooks from Project Gutenberg for browsing and reading, with searchable author lists and many classic texts in downloadable formats
German-language radio station with news, hourly updates, regional and world reports, plus an archive of audio posts and podcasts to listen to or download
Streaming audio platform for Austrian public radio, with all stations live and selected shows available on demand for 30 days
German idiom explanations with example sentences and exercises, organized by themes like body parts, travel, food, and holidays
Video lesson on German idioms and colloquial expressions, here teaching the phrase "ein alter Hase sein" with examples for learners
German-language news and long-form articles on travel, science, photography, history, and nature, with archives and topical reading pieces to browse and read
"SRF is basically the Swiss version of the BBC and they do a mix of High-German and Swiss-German telly and radio. Generally they do the highest quality and most widely interesting productions. As far as I can tell the content isn’t locked to the country so you can access it anywhere."
A Spotify playlist with Swiss German music.
A Spotify playlist with Swiss German music.
Swabian-German dictionary (including sound files), also features rather humorous guides to e.g. grammar and pronunciation
Live-streaming radio player for ARD German stations, letting learners choose regional channels and listen to news, music, culture, and talk programs
A Spotify playlist with Swiss German music.
German audiobook archive with a search and filter system for browsing titles by mood, voice, tempo, genre, and situation
A free Alemannic Wikipedia with about 31,777 articles to read, edit, and browse by category, portal, or A–Z index
Small Berndeutsch-to-Hochdeutsch dictionary with an alphabetized word list and brief explanations for understanding Bern dialect texts
German streaming portal with videos, livestreams, and clips to watch for reading practice across news, documentaries, series, sports, and interviews
German news site with current articles, analysis, background reports, podcasts, and topic sections across politics, business, society, science, culture, and sport
Searchable Züri-Slang dictionary with themed lists and submitted entries, giving Zürich expressions with standard German meanings.
German pronunciation videos focused on reducing accent, with additional clips about learning German and speaking clearly
Learn it there, practise it here
Free resources are great for input: reading, listening, explanations. They are weaker at the two things that actually move you forward: speaking German out loud, and remembering what you met once. That is what OwnSlides is for.
Say it out loud
Talk to an AI tutor that answers back, or get matched with other learners and native speakers for a text chat.
Practise what you read
Turn a grammar point or article into exercises, so it moves from recognised to usable.
Keep the words
Save new words to My Words and let spaced repetition bring them back before you forget them.
This directory began from a community-built list of free language resources, a year of collecting and checking by Joanna (u/chlebka) and dozens of contributors who suggested links, shared freely. See the original list. We have since expanded, re-checked and re-categorised it, and we keep the per-resource credits where the original list recorded them.