10 German Audiobooks for All Levels
Are you looking for some fascinating German audiobooks?
In this post, we’ll dive into 10 audiobooks you can use to learn German, plus resources to find more and tips for studying with them.
Contents
- 1. Learn German with Paul Noble for Beginners
- 2. Learn German Bundle: Easy Introduction for Beginners
- 3. Pimsleur
- 4. 2000 Most Common German Words in Context
- 5. Short Stories in German for Intermediate Learners
- 6. “Der Wald” (“The Forest”)
- 7. The “Harry Potter” Series
- 8. “Die Verwandlung” (“The Metamorphosis”)
- 9. “Sturmhöhe” (“Wuthering Heights”)
- 10. “Der Sandmann” (“The Sandman”)
- Where to Find German Audiobooks
- How to Learn German with Audiobooks
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
1. Learn German with Paul Noble for Beginners
Level: Beginner
This audiobook is designed to help absolute beginners learn conversational German. It was created by Paul Noble. In the course, Paul creates a relaxed and learner-friendly environment by focusing on real-world, practical conversations and avoiding rote memorization.
The link above is the audiobook to the complete course, but you can also find its parts sold as separate audiobooks.
There are three parts and a course review at the end:
- Part one includes language ground rules, asking questions, an introduction to verbs and hotel vocabulary
- Part two includes numbers, eating out, asking for directions and at train station vocabulary
- Part three includes taking a train, time phrases, the past tense and “a brief encounter”
You’ll learn basic vocabulary, sentence structure and other grammar topics through engaging scenarios that resemble everyday life. It also comes with a reference guide you can download.
2. Learn German Bundle: Easy Introduction for Beginners
Level: Beginner
This audiobook is a perfect course for absolute beginners who want to achieve an A2 level in German. The course philosophy is built off of three points:
- Short, compact lessons that last five minutes—so you can complete them even on your busiest days
- Learning German the natural way—by hearing daily conversations between native speakers
- You start speaking from the first lesson
This audiobook course is a bundle of several Innovative Language course materials and products. It includes the Absolute Beginner Season 2, Absolute Beginner Season 3 and Newbie Season 1 courses from GermanPod101.
It contains over 11 hours and 30 minutes of lessons and a 400-page downloadable PDF you can use to read along with the conversations.
3. Pimsleur
Level: Beginner thru Upper-Intermediate
Pimsleur’s German course consists of five levels. Each level contains 30 audio lessons, and each lesson lasts 30 minutes.
The Pimsleur lessons are designed so you start speaking from the very first lesson.
Each lesson starts with a conversation between two native speakers. Then, the narrator walks you through each part. He asks you to repeat after him and walks you through how to pronounce new words by having you repeat each syllable.
At the end of the lesson, the conversation from the beginning is replayed. But this time, you’ll be able to fully understand it.
Pimsleur also has some reading lessons and practice if you want to use it for more than just an audio course. And if you get the Premium subscription, you’ll also get access to lots of review tools, like flashcards.
You can choose to buy the Pimsleur courses upfront at a one-time cost or you can subscribe to a monthly subscription.
4. 2000 Most Common German Words in Context
Level: Beginner thru Intermediate
This German audiobook helps you master the 2,000 most common words in German. This means you’ll be able to understand the words used in conversation most frequently—it’s like a hack to being able to have conversations fast.
It’s based on the idea that the most common 2,000 words make up 92.7% of oral speech.
The book includes tips for how to improve your German study plan, the 2,000 words and their translations, an example sentence for each word and a conclusion section that acts as a review.
There’s also an accompanying PDF file you can download. You’ll find it in your Audible library after you purchase the audiobook.
5. Short Stories in German for Intermediate Learners
Level: Intermediate
If you’re an intermediate learner ready to improve your vocabulary and listening skills, this is the German audiobook for you.
It contains eight German short stories covering several genres, and they’re read at a pace that’s not too easy but also not too difficult for you to understand and enjoy.
Although the stories belong to various genres—like thriller and crime history—the conversations between characters are based on everyday speech.
The stories also ease you into new intermediate grammar points in an immersive way.
The audiobook also includes a glossary for new vocabulary (or words you might not know), which are in bold. Plus, a bilingual word list, plot summaries and a quiz to test your comprehension after each chapter.
6. “Der Wald” (“The Forest”)
Level: Beginner
“Der Wald” is part of a series of books aimed at young native speakers of German learning to read their own language.
Now it’s also available in an audiobook format. This is a great option for any beginner German learners.
As the book is aimed at very young children, you’ll find that it uses very simple vocabulary and sentence structures. Check for the audio version of “Der Wald” on Amazon and Thalia.
7. The “Harry Potter” Series
Level: Intermediate
J.K. Rowling’s fantasy series was popular in Germany, too. That means you’ll have no problems when it comes to sourcing some Harry Potter audiobooks.
Amazon.de is a great place to look, as they may have deals on offer. Thalia and Audible may also house the Harry Potter audiobooks.
As all the books in the series are YA, these are very useful for intermediate-level learners. They’ll be challenging but not too difficult to listen to! It’s also worth watching the films to complement your audiobook listening.
8. “Die Verwandlung” (“The Metamorphosis”)
Level: Intermediate and Advanced
Franz Kafka’s short novel is one of the most famous in German literature. The book is often used in German and literature classes, so you’ll be able to find lots of resources to help you with it.
As the book is now over 100 years old, the language used gives you a great glimpse into how German was used in the past. Which should give you an idea of how the language has developed over the decades.
By looking at this and understanding German’s development over time, you should get a better grasp of how modern German works.
This audiobook is more suitable for intermediate and advanced learners, as some of the vocabulary and grammar structures may be more difficult to understand at first. Along with the free YouTube version above, you can also check for the audiobook version at the likes of Amazon.de and Audible.
9. “Sturmhöhe” (“Wuthering Heights”)
Level: Advanced
Another really well-known novel, “Wuthering Heights” is by British author Emily Brontë, and there’s a good chance that you’ll have seen one of the recent movie or TV adaptations.
It’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with the plot of this book before you launch yourself into the translated audiobook version.
It’s quite complex, and as the book is over 150 years old, you’ll find that the German used is more dated than that in “Die Verwandlung.”
Challenging yourself with old German is a great way to improve your language skills as it gives you a broader view of the German language and its history.
Plus, you’ll find that there are still a few old German terms and sentence structures used in legal German. Making yourself familiar with them will really help your fluency if you ever need to deal with German in a legal situation.
This is a great audiobook choice for those with advanced-level German.
10. “Der Sandmann” (“The Sandman”)
Level: Intermediate and Advanced
“The Sandman” is a short story written by E.T.A. Hoffmann, who’s considered to be one of the greats of German literature. This one is suitable for intermediate and advanced German learners.
This is another German book that’s widely taught in schools and colleges (in its German and English versions), so you’ll be able to easily find resources to help you understand the story.
You’ll also find that older texts, such as “Der Sandmann,” and the other older books in this list, use the special subjunctive mood a lot more frequently than in modern German. You’ll find plenty of examples of this sentence mood throughout the book to help your understanding of it.
Download the German audiobook on Amazon or by signing up for an Audible trial.
Where to Find German Audiobooks
For more German audiobooks, here are the best places to go.
Amazon.de
The German version of Amazon features a wide range of audiobooks for all genres and tastes. Fans of CDs will be delighted, as that is the main medium in which they are sold here.
However, downloads are also available, many of them for free.
If you’re in Europe, ordering from Amazon Germany should not pose any problem. Those outside the European Union need to check if shipping to their country is available.
Buecher.de
A purely German retailer, Buecher.de delivers free of charge within Germany—good news for those on vacation or living there.
Other European countries can also benefit from their services, but unfortunately, no products get sent overseas. The same seems to be true for their audiobook download. Still worth a try though!
Audible
Audible books in German are a perfect opportunity for language learners. You can easily filter by language to find hundreds of German options.
MosaLingua
MosaLingua is a program you can use to learn German that focuses on putting words and phrases into context.
With the web version, you get access to plenty of content selected specially for learners in their library, which includes German books and their audio versions.
Thalia.de
Thalia is a popular bookstore chain found in German towns and cities.
Their online shop also features a wide range of audiobooks.
Spotify
Spotify is known as being one of the best music streaming services, but you can find a good selection of audiobooks on the platform, too.
Try it for yourself: Type Hörbuch into the search bar (copy and paste from the article if your keyboard comes without umlauts) and scroll through the abundance of results.
From German fables, to Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean” to young German literature, it’s all there. And the best part: a basic Spotify account is free!
If you have a book you’re interested in, you can try looking up its German title to find the German version.
Freiszene.de
This website collects audiobooks that have been produced by German radio stations and made available for sharing. You can download their entire content legally and for free.
Audiobooks are available in 13 different categories, among them adventure, drama, fantasy, horror and science fiction.
Browse the latest uploads or look at what other users found most appealing. Most files come in mp3 format and are therefore playable on most devices.
Vorleser.net
First of all, the German verb vorlesen is a great one and should become part of your repertoire. It means “to read to someone.”
The website Vorleser.net started as a one-person project. Its founder decided to record himself reading some German fables by the brothers Grimm and put them online for free.
Over time, it became more popular. Today, it houses almost a thousand audiobooks that have been produced by volunteers and can be streamed online or downloaded at will.
Ohrka.de
This page might be most interesting for beginners, as it’s a home for audiobooks made for children. The website was founded by a bunch of well-known German voice actors to produce and offer free audiobooks for the little ones.
That might also explain the wordplay in the website’s name (Orca – orca whale, Ohr – ear).
Stories include such classics as “Treasure Island,” “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” and “The Jungle Book.”
All books on the website are available for download.
How to Learn German with Audiobooks
- Listen to a snippet of the audiobook before buying it. Most online bookstores will give a little snippet of their audiobooks so that you can get a flavor of the text and story. If you listen to this and realize that you don’t understand a word, it’s necessary to move on to a different book. Ideally, you need to find an audiobook that’s challenging but still possible to listen along to.
- Ask for recommendations. Most schools and colleges will have audiobooks that they rent out to students. If yours does, it’s worth asking teachers for their recommendations, as they’ll have a good idea as to which books you’ll be able to handle at your current level.
- Keep a list of all the German words that you hear but don’t understand. Be sure to return to review this list of words and listen again until they start to stick.
- Read while you listen. It’s also worth finding a printed copy of the book so that you can read along while you’re listening. (Just be aware that if you’re reading a book that’s been translated into German, the audiobook will differ if it’s not made using the same translation.) This is especially useful for beginner and intermediate learners, as it can ensure that you’re able to follow the story. Plus, it’ll also give your reading skills a nice little boost!
If you find that listening to audiobooks doesn’t really seem to do any good at first, keep at it—listening practice takes time, and you’ll find that your comprehension improves slowly but surely.
To prepare yourself for audiobook learning, you might want to incorporate another type of media, such as video. That way, you can both hear and see the German you’re learning, which will help you better understand it.
FluentU is one of the best websites and apps for learning German the way native speakers really use it. FluentU takes real-world videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.
Watch authentic media to simultaneously immerse yourself in the German language and build an understanding of the German culture.
By using real-life videos, the content is kept fresh and current. Topics cover a lot of ground as you can see here:
Vocabulary and phrases are learned with the help of interactive subtitles and full transcripts.
Hovering over or tapping on any word in the subtitles will automatically pause the video and instantly display its meaning. Interesting words you don’t know yet can be added to a to-learn list for later.
For every lesson, a list of vocabulary is provided for easy reference and bolstered with plenty of examples of how each word is used in a sentence.
Your existing knowledge is tested with the help of adaptive quizzes in which words are learned in context.
To keep things fresh, FluentU keeps track of the words you’re learning and recommends further lessons and videos based on what you've already studied.
This way, you have a truly personalized learning experience.
Start using the FluentU website on your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the FluentU app from the iTunes or Google Play store. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)
As you can see, the range of German audiobooks on offer from all the usual sites and platforms is very wide and varied. And the more you try out, the more you’ll realize just how great audiobooks are for improving your German skills.
What are you waiting for, then? It’s time to hit the play button!
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)