Learn Business German: With free vocabulary lists (free download)!

You learn:

• A business German vocabulary with the most important words, phrases and expressions. You can download it (completely free of charge and without registration) as PDF file.
• The best learning aids for Business German: From videos on YouTube to podcasts and books, from apps to online language courses. For all levels – from beginners to advanced learners.

If you want to be able to use German confidently in your everyday work life, you will find everything you need to achieve this in this article.

Ready? Then let’s get started with your first steps on the way to solid Business German!

Here you can find this whole article in German: Business-Deutsch.

How do you best learn Business German? 

While you can easily acquire basic knowledge of a foreign language like German by yourself these days – the Internet is full of offers to learn German for free – the situation is somewhat different with Business German.

Without the help of high-quality learning aids such as books, videos, podcasts, apps or even a specific Business German course (conversation course, language training etc.) you are going to find it difficult to make the necessary progress to reach one of the reference levels for your CV. These are, among others, the „Goethe-Test PRO: Deutsch für den Beruf“ or the „Telc Deutsch C1 Beruf“.

In this chapter you will therefore find the best – and for this reason recommended by us – learning materials for Business German. Starting with dictionaries and vocabulary trainers.

1a) Specialist dictionaries and vocabulary trainers to specifically improve your Business German vocabulary:

To be able to speak fluently, the basic requirement is an extensive vocabulary. In order to acquire this, you first need to know which vocabulary you have to learn (we have already introduced some Business German vocabulary in the first chapter) and then memorize it efficiently. One of the best tools for this are – still – vocabulary trainers or flashcards.

With these you can

• learn everywhere,

• learn only the words and phrases that are relevant / important for you – in order to specifically expand your vocabulary,
• and a good vocabulary trainer reminds you to repeat at the ideal time according to the SRS principle.

So first you need a special dictionary for Business German. From these we recommend: 

The „Manual of Business German“ (German-English): 

This is the most comprehensive reference book for Business German vocabulary. It is suitable for all levels from beginner to advanced and contains:

• A 6000-word two-page glossary of the most useful words, phrases and expressions.
• A 100-page section on correct written communication in a German-speaking workplace. Including template for 50 letters, faxes, e-mails and further documents.
• An 80-page section on professional communication in the workplace. This covers both personal communication and telephone conversations.
• A short reference grammar, which outlines the most important aspects of German grammar.
• A short section on economic facts and figures, which contains essential information about the countries where German is spoken.

This unique volume has been produced in collaboration between an experienced team of native German and English speakers. It is an indispensable reference book for all students and professionals who want to communicate confidently in German in their (future) everyday working life.

The „Manual of Business German“ is available both as eBook / PDF and print version. Get it at Bücher.de (eBook / book) or Amazon. (*)

In further consequence, you will need a high quality vocabulary trainer to effectively acquire this business German vocabulary. Among these we recommend Memorion (our favourite), Anki and Quizlet. With all three, you can either create your own card sets or use those of other users. You should definitely be able to find one or the other ready-made set on the topic of business German. Click here for:

• Our favourite Memorion (Android – free),
• Anki (Android and Web – free of charge / iOS around 20 euros)
• and Quizlet (Web, Android and iOS free of charge).

1b) Books for Business German: The classic learning aid – „oldie but goldie“: 

Books are still a popular (and excellent) aid to learn a language, despite the great success of digital teaching materials. However, the offer is large, the quality unfortunately partly the opposite. We have therefore saved you the effort of the time-consuming pre-selection process to present you here our recommendations among the Business German books:

1. Langenscheidt Sprechtraining Deutsch für den Beruf (language levels B1 / B2):

This book provides you with the basic skills for oral communication in education and at work. You will specifically improve your abilities to successfully master conversations with co-workers and customers. You will also learn how to give short lectures and presentations. The advantages of this textbook are:

• Ideal as additional material for professional language courses or lessons at vocational schools.
• Training of oral communication at the workplace.
• Simulation of conversation situations with colleagues and customers.
• Training of short lectures and presentations.
• Authentic situations from everyday professional life.
• With listening and speaking exercises as MP3 download.
• With comprehensive solutions section – therefore also suitable for self-learners.
• Ideal for exam preparation.

Get it from Amazon. (*)

2. PONS Bürokommunikation Deutsch (Sprachniveaus B1 / B2):

This book offers you a variety of useful templates such as sample letters and text modules for business correspondence in German. These are complemented with even more exercises – including the answers, of course. Here the focus is on learning written skills and less on speaking. With this textbook you will receive:

• Helpful templates for making appointments, inquiries, orders, quotations, reminders, reservations, complaints, e-mails, personal correspondence and much more.
• Learn the general rules, idioms, the do’s and don’ts and the vocabulary of business life.
• All the text modules can be found in the book as well as downloaded to your computer. Writing e-mails and letters for work has never been easier.
• To make sure you always hit the right note, a scale in the sample letters tells you how formal or informal the respective formulations are.
• Reference and practice in one: With practical exercises including solutions and tips.
• Bonus: Cheatsheet with important phrases and idioms for telephone conversations at the workplace.

Get it from Amazon. (*)

3. Business-Deutsch – In 5 Schritten formeller sprechen lernen (language level B2):

Presenting yourself better and more confidently in meetings, team rounds and conferences. Improve your German language skills specifically to include the most important topics of Business German:

• Increase your formal vocabulary to become more professional in business correspondence.
• Make targeted use of German grammar as a means of communication.
• Train your speaking skills and improve your performance at meetings and conferences.
• Pronunciation exercises: Speak and intonate clearly and use intermissions skilfully.
• Get to know cultural peculiarities and rules of conduct at work – and avoid typical pitfalls in communication, collaboration and negotiation.

Get it from Amazon. (*)

1c) Business German podcast: Improve your listening comprehension – and in passing expand your business knowledge!

To consolidate your vocabulary and improve your listening comprehension, there’s nothing better than podcasts. And the best thing about them – you can listen to them anytime, anywhere. Just plug in your headphones, start the podcast and switch your brain to recording. You can also perform light mechanical tasks (that don’t require a lot of concentration) like housework or sports to make the most of your time. Of course, podcasts are also perfect for use on public transport. The best Business German podcasts are:

• „Deep Dive“ entrepreneur podcast (German): The founder and editor-in-chief of the online magazine „Digital Kompakt“ Joel Kaczmarek offers expert knowledge on the topics of financing, tech, law and marketing in his podcast. He also interviews interesting digital entrepreneurs.
• Leadership in a nutshell (German): The graduate engineer Bernd Geropp is a coach for corporate leadership, employee motivation,  management and strategy. And these are also the topics his podcast is all about.
• The Happy Entrepreneur (German): This podcast is also about how entrepreneurs can improve their leadership qualities and thus increase their business success.

1d) Business German videos: YouTube is not only about cats and computer games.

If you are more of a visual rather than an auditory learning type, you will prefer learning videos (or videos for learning) to audio-only podcasts. You can improve your Business German with free YouTube videos, series and films – or even video language courses. The ones we recommend of these you find in the following:

We start with a video from „Business German with Vasilena Petkova“ on the topic „Presenting in German – the right Speech for a introduction / agenda (C1/C2)“.

You find the YouTube channel of Vasilena with many more helpful videos to learn Business German here.

Further recommendations to learn Business German with videos:

• Here you can find an extensive YouTube playlist with videos onBusiness German, in which conversations in German (with English translation) are presented.
• Stromberg: This is a German series, which was shot in the style of the so popular docu-soaps. In this series, a television team accompanies the everyday office life of the fictitious Capitol Versicherung AG. The place of action is usually the claims settlement department M-Z, which is headed by Bernd Stromberg. Stromberg naturally wants his team to always present itself from the very best side. However, he rarely succeeds in putting the department – and above all himself – in a good light. With the series you can combine the pleasant with the useful – watch an entertaining series (and relax) and at the same time train your Business German. Naturally the series uses a lot of vocabulary from the German-speaking profesional world. You can watch the series for about 10 Euro per season at Amazon. (*)
• LinguaTV: Is an award-winning online language course sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, which focuses entirely on language learning with the help of videos. However, these are not just any learning and instructional videos, as you can find on YouTube for free, but professionally produced training videos. These show in authentic conversation situations how native speakers use the respective language. Through these realistic dialogues you not only learn practical vocabulary but at the same time the correct / authentic pronunciation. The offer is complemented by interactive exercises such as a quiz, crossword puzzles and a variety of other learning games.

Fluentu (English): Based on a similar concept as LinguaTV – learning languages with the help of videos, but unlike LinguaTV, Fluentu is specifically aimed at English-speaking learners of German.

1e) Business German apps: Improve your language skills with your smartphone!

The mini supercomputer, understatedly referred to as a „smartphone“, which each of us carries in our trouser pockets, does not serve for entertainment only. It is also an excellent tool to educate yourself. Getting your Business German up to date with a language learning app is easy, entertaining and comparatively inexpensive. Or even for free. Three apps, which we would like to introduce and recommend are:

• B2-Beruf (Android – free): The app was developed by the German Adult Education Association and is aimed at advanced learners of German with previous knowledge (level B1 / B2). In different chapters you complete short exercises on all kinds of topics of the professional life – from „application“ to „communication with customers“. The only downfall is that the exercises are quite short, so that you will soon have used up the offer of them quite quickly. Nevertheless, the app is recommendable as free learning tool.

• Babbel (Android, iOS – price between 6 and 13€ per month): Probably the best known (and one of the best) apps for language learning of course also offers a German business course. This is suitable for you if you are a beginner and want to learn some Business German together with the basics of the language, as the Business German course is embedded in a complete online German course. By the way, we’ve tested Babbel extensively – you can find our Babbel test here.

• LingQ (Android, iOS – price between 7 and 12€ per month): Is a language app for advanced learners that was developed by the well-known linguist Steve Kaufmann based on the input hypothesis (a well-known method for learning languages). With LingQ you learn exclusively with content you choose, so you can easily create your own Business German course. The choice of content is as extensive as the Internet itself – and therefore in principle infinite. LingQ, however, requires somewhat more advanced language skills (B1 / B2). We have also tested LingQ extensively – you can find our LingQ test here. By the way, as a Sprachheld reader you get a free trial access and 35% discount on the premium version of the app LingQ. You can try LingQ for free here.(*)

1f) Online language courses and language tutors for Business German: With professional support, take off like a 100 m runner!

If you want to make progress as quickly as possible – for example, because an important exam date is getting close – then you should seek professional help through a special business course or a language tutor for German.

Such tutors know exactly what the challenges and difficulties of learning Business German are. They also have a lot of experience: With preparation for exams, for job interviews and for a first job in a German company. Therefore they can help you in a targeted manner and work with you on your (still) existing weaknesses so that your first day at work will be a „day to remember“. And this in a positive sense, and not in a negative. By this way, you will save yourself from embarrassing experiences, such as the ones Dilyana from German Skills has had.

• B2-Beruf (free of charge): The course was developed by the German Adult Education Association and is aimed at advanced learners of German with previous knowledge (level B1 / B2). In various chapters you complete short exercises on all kinds of topics related to the professional life – from „Application“ to „Communication with customers“. The only downfall is that the exercises are quite short, so that you will soon have used up the offer of them quite quickly. Nevertheless, the German course is recommendable as a free learning aid.

• Italki language tutors: If you would like to have a personal language tutor to help you get your German up to date for your job, then we can strongly recommend Italki. At Italki you receive personal attention from a native-speaking teacher – at the time you want, adapted to your personal needs and all this at a very good price. Gabriel himself has used the services of Italki language tutors for several of his foreign languages. Here you can read his Italki experiences.

• German with Marija: Probably the best known (and most popular) online German teacher. Over 200.000 subscribers on YouTube, over 100.000 followers on Facebook, thousands of lessons and even more sold German courses can’t lie. If you are looking for a professional and high quality online German course, then you can only choose Marija. Our choice it would be.

And with Marija’s courses with the extra portion of heart we have already reached the end of my (detailed) article on the topic „Learning Business German“. And, what do you say? Does it have everything you need or is there still missing a particularly recommendable learning aid? If so, just leave it in the comments.

Other articulos to learn German which might be from interest to you:

• How to learn German: What is the best way to learn German fast and effective?
• Deutsche Sprache, schwere Sprache: Oder – ist Deutsch schwer zu lernen? Ein Erfahrungsbericht.
• 10 Tipps zum Deutsch lernen, Deutsch sprechen, Deutsch verstehen und Deutsch verbessern.
• Learn German for free: The complete A-Z guide with the best learning aids, exercises and resources!

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