By Laura Harker Last updated: June 28, 2024

5 Top TED Talks in German

It’s time to become well acquainted with TED. Not only will this cool organization fill your head with loads of facts, but their talks can help you polish your German language skills.

Here are five great TED Talks in German, along with key vocabulary lists for each to help with your comprehension.

Contents

• 1. Komfortzone Zukunft (The Future of the Comfort Zone)
• 2. Think Like a Designer
• 3. Ambiguitätstoleranz (Ambiguity Tolerance)
• 4. Poetry Slammer
• 5. Auf Holz Gebaut (Made of Wood)
• Why Use TED Talks to Better Your German
• How to Learn German with TED Talks
• And One More Thing...

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. Komfortzone Zukunft (The Future of the Comfort Zone)

Professor Doctor Gunter Dueck gave his talk called Komfortzone Zukunft (The Future of the Comfort Zone) as part of the TEDxRheinMain conference. It looks at how humans adapt to change in their lives. Dueck has done a couple of talks for TED. If you enjoy this one, have a listen to some of his others.

Keywords

• die Psychologie des Wandels – the psychology of change
• dressieren – to train / drill
• die Erziehung – education / upbringing
• die Wutgefühle – feelings of anger
• die Vernunft – rationality

2. Think Like a Designer

At TEDxBerlin Erik Spiekermann spoke about the whole concept of redesigning design. The German typographer is known for having designed typefaces that are now seen as modern classics.

Keywords

• umdenken – to rethink
• die Schriftart – typeface
• das Konzept – concept
• die Kreativität – creativity
• der Grafiker – the designer

3. Ambiguitätstoleranz (Ambiguity Tolerance)

Dr. Jivka Ovtcharova is a scientist at the Karslruhe Institute for Technology. Her talk, Ambiguitätstoleranz (Ambiguity Tolerance) took place during TEDxKoeln.

This talk looks at the roles emotions play, and how we can use virtual reality to find the space between the invisible and visible in our world.

Keywords

• unsichtbar – invisible
• virtuelle Realität – virtual reality
• die Informatik – computer science
• die Identität – identity
• der Mensch – human / person

4. Poetry Slammer

MATZE B is a slam poet. His talk at TEDxBodensee looked at the art behind spoken word poems and poetry slams. He also covers his journey from being a poet in a small journey to ending up a German teacher.

Keywords

• die Dichtung – poetry
• die Literatur – literature
• die Wortakrobatik – word acrobatics
• entdecken – to discover
• dichten – to write poetry / to write verses

5. Auf Holz Gebaut (Made of Wood)

At TEDxSalzburg, Hubert Rhomberg, co-founder and owner of the international construction company Rhomberg Gruppe, spoke about sustainable construction.

Rhomberg has developed a wood-hybrid building method for building houses. He talks about this and many other efficient and sustainable building systems that can help us create a greener future.

Keywords

• das Holz – wood
• nachhaltig – sustainable
• das Bauwesen – architecture / the building industry
• die Effizienz – efficiency
• die Ressourcen – resources

Why Use TED Talks to Better Your German

There are many talks dedicated to language learning. Watching these videos will give tips and tricks on the best way to go about learning a language.

But you don’t have to stick to just videos in English—most of the talks have been translated into over forty languages. If a talk isn’t available with German subtitles, there will be a translated script available to download.

There are many different TED Talks, covering a wide spectrum of subjects. These aren’t just any boring conference talks. Topics range from body language and inspirational leaders to sea creatures.

One of the best parts of TED is TEDx. TEDx gives communities, organizations and experts the chance to take their talks to a local level. So, instead of every talk being held at the TED HQ, the company plans events in towns and cities around the world.

And they don’t just stick to the most obvious locations, either. These TEDx events have taken place in the likes of Kharkov, Ukraine, Seoul, South Korea and Wuhan, Switzerland. Some of these talks are in English. However, the local language is used whenever possible.

TEDx events take place all over the world and anyone can apply to be in the audience. Not in the right place at the right time? No worries. Most events—even some conferences—are streamed live as a webcast. To watch a talk live, go to the main TED website and search for your chosen TEDx event. You may not be able to join into a question and answer session, but you can still listen to all the talks in full.

If you want to learn more with authentic media, you could try a language learning program like FluentU.

How to Learn German with TED Talks

If you’re already confident in your German and consider yourself an advanced learner, you should be all right diving straight into each video. There may be the odd technical word that you stumble on.

Apart from that though, you’ll find the speaking very clear and the language manageable. As each talk is aimed at a wider audience, the spoken German is often a lot slower than in regular speech. This helps novices in the subject keep up to speed with what’s going on. Sometimes, the speaker may not be a native German. If so, their accented language may be hard to follow at first. However, stick with it and give your ear time to adjust.

If you’re an intermediate learner, you may find it best to watch the original English version of your chosen video. You can also see if the German script is available online. If so, print it out and read through it and circle any parts you aren’t so sure of. Take your time to use dictionaries and grammar books to figure out these tricky bits. Once you understand the script, place it to one side and turn on the video. Now that you have an idea of the background and topics in the talk, you’ll be able to follow the spoken German better.

Almost every talk originally in English has been translated into various languages, so you should be able to find a translated German version either on the TED website or on YouTube. Don’t forget, you can always tune in live on the day of the talk if it’s being streamed as a webcast.

There are plenty more TED Talks auf Deutsch out there to help improve your skills with.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)