deutsch.info

What deutsch.info is

deutsch.info is a free, multilingual website for learning German. Its home page describes it as a multilingual online platform for learning German "everywhere, at any time and for free", and the footer states that it is funded by the European Union. Alongside online courses it offers grammar explanations, games, audio-visual materials, practical information about working and living in Germany and Austria, and free teaching materials. Learners set up an account at no cost, and the sign-up button invites visitors to register for free.

The About page explains the reasoning: the labor markets in Germany and Austria are open to new, qualified workers, which drives interest in learning German. Its main target group is "motivated learners of German who have a lively interest in language, culture and people", and it names workers with various qualifications, students who intend to move to Germany or Austria or already live there, everyone who needs German at work, school pupils, tourists and residents of countries bordering Germany and Austria. The copyright line runs from 2013 to 2026.

The courses

The courses page has three groups. The general courses are an Intro followed by Level A1, Level A2, Level B1 and Level B2; the home page calls these "Four comprehensive language courses at levels A1, A2, B1 and B2, with interactive exercises and audio-visual teaching materials." That takes a learner from first contact with German to upper intermediate on one free site.

The professional courses give the site a vocational side. There are four, listed under their German titles: Handwerk und Technik (trades and technology), IT, Pflege (nursing and care) and Tourismus und Gastronomie (tourism and gastronomy). For someone planning to work in one of those fields in Germany or Austria, a free course aimed at that field is a practical bridge between general German and the workplace. A separate Grammar course sits under "Other courses".

Grammar, media and practical information

Around the courses, the site has several reference areas. The Grammar section gives "The most important rules, with example sentences, for the correct usage of German grammar". The Media library holds "numerous authentic texts as well as audio and visual material in German", useful for learners who want real input beyond the course exercises.

The Background or Practical information area covers life in Germany and Austria, which the home page describes as "practical and especially important for migrants". The Quiz offers "Playful knowledge tests about history, culture, politics and society in Germany and Austria with authentic questions from citizenship tests", so a learner preparing to settle in either country can practice the kind of questions those tests ask. The menu also has a Tests section, a "Did you know?" panel with a short historical fact (the one on the home page is about the Berlin Wall), and two extras: Dandelin, German for kids, and Der Die Das, the second a playful way to learn the gender articles der, die and das.

Languages of the site

The point of a multilingual platform is that learners can study German through their own language rather than through English. The language picker lists Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, German, Greek, English, Esperanto, Spanish, Persian, French, Croatian, Hungarian, Italian, Lithuanian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovenian, Albanian, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese and simplified Chinese, with a completion percentage for each translation. Most are in the 90s, while Ukrainian stands at 39% and Albanian at 11%, so learners using those two will meet more untranslated text. The site invites visitors to help: "Help us translate the website! Contact us".

The teachers' portal

The Lehrer*innen-Portal (teachers' portal) is written in German and offers free, creative lesson packages and materials for teaching German as a foreign or second language in schools (DaF/DaZ). Its contents:

• a handbook, "deutsch.info im Unterricht" (.pdf), described as a comprehensive guide to using the site in class with practical tips and examples;
• teaching packages matched to the online courses, with workbooks, audio files and extra materials for direct classroom use;
• guidance for teaching German to learners with dyslexia, with background information, practical tips, examples and classroom-ready materials suited to their needs;
• materials and training for teaching German outdoors, built around movement, environmental awareness, sensory experience and cross-subject learning;
• downloadable extras such as posters, worksheets and games;
• a Quiz-Generator, a tool for creating puzzles and picture riddles about the German language that can be downloaded and used directly in class.

The main menu also links to Webinare (webinars). For a school or a volunteer program teaching German to newcomers, this makes deutsch.info a free source of lesson material that lines up with what students practice online.

Who runs it

The About page credits a consortium of partners from NGOs and from private and public educational institutions. They include Studio GAUS GmbH in Berlin, a new media agency that has built other language portals; Edukácia@Internet in Partizánske, Slovakia, whose Esperanto and Slovak learning sites provide the basis for deutsch.info; the Österreich Institut in Vienna, which offers German courses in cooperation with the Republic of Austria and received the European Label for innovative language projects in 2002; and WBS TRAINING AG in Berlin, which the page says has over 30 years of experience in funded vocational training and offers qualifications in 20 thematic areas. Other partners include Inter-kulturo in Maribor, Mediaost in Berlin, Fundacja Novinka in Cracow, Spektrum Educational Center in Miercurea Ciuc, Bilark in Istanbul and Mewcat on Milos. Co-operation partners include the Foreign Language Centre of Masaryk University in Brno, the language school English Unlimited in Sopot, Look in MENA and the Österreichischer Integrationsfonds, the Austrian Integration Fund. Sister projects teach Russian, Slovak, Czech and Esperanto and cover the languages of Europe.

Who it suits and who it doesn't

deutsch.info suits self-directed learners from beginner to B2 who want a complete, free German course, especially those who would rather study through Turkish, Arabic, Persian, Russian or another language than through English. It is a strong fit for people planning to work in Germany or Austria in trades, IT, care, or tourism and gastronomy, and for migrants who need practical information and citizenship-test practice alongside the language. Teachers and volunteer programs get ready-made, free classroom materials matched to the online courses.

The learner side is built around interactive exercises and media rather than live classes with a tutor, so learners who want conversation practice with a person or a cohort to keep them going will need to add that elsewhere. Learners aiming beyond B2 will reach the end of the general courses at that level.