Mitlesen
German stories, graded for learners
Read the German text with its English translation side by side, one sentence at a time. Every story here exists at four levels, A1 to B2, so you can read it at the level you have actually reached.
Fairy tales
Classic Brothers Grimm fairy tales — short, iconic, and a gentle on-ramp for German reading. Recognizable plots make new vocabulary easier to absorb.
Everyday life
A set of short, dialogue driven stories that teach practical German for everyday situations like making plans, shopping, ordering food, and handling small problems in real life.
Classics
German literature that every German reader grew up with — Borchert, Kafka and more, graded to your level.
Short stories
Complete stories you can finish in one sitting — a beginning, a middle and an end in under twenty minutes.
Read German at the level you are actually at
Every story here exists at four CEFR levels — A1, A2, B1 and B2 — so you can read it at the level you have reached rather than fighting through the original and giving up. The level picker sits at the top of each story, and switching it swaps the whole text, not just the hard words.
German and English, side by side
Each German sentence carries its own English translation, hidden until you ask for it. You read the German first and check yourself only when you are stuck, which is the difference between a story you can practise with and a test you can fail.
Not only English — Persian, Turkish and Arabic too
These pages show the English translation, but English is not the only one. In the Mitlesen app every story reads the same way in فارسی, Türkçe and العربية — the same German text, the same levels, translated line by line. If German is your third language rather than your second, you should not have to learn it through your second.
Which German story should I start with?
Whichever one you like the look of — every story here is published at all four levels, so the choice costs you nothing. Des Kaisers neue Kleider and Hänsel und Gretel sit at the top of the list if you would rather not choose. Read it at A1 first, even if that feels too easy: finishing a story in German is worth more than half-finishing a harder one, and you can raise the same story to B2 once it stops feeling like work.