10 catchy songs to help you learn German

After a while you’ll be effortlessly singing along with these tunes and using phrases from them in your everyday speech without even realising.

1. Nena: 99 Luftballons (99 Air Balloons)

Nena in performance. Photo:DPA

 

We’ll start with a classic which you’re bound to already know. This song is great because you’re probably already familiar with the tune. After a couple of listens - and maybe a quick glance over the lyrics - you should be able to understand the story of these 99 Luftballons. 

"Hast du etwas Zeit für mich
Dann singe ich ein Lied für dich
Von 99 Luftballons
Auf ihrem Weg zum Horizont"

The West German song tells the story of how 99 air balloons floating towards the horizon are mistaken as a threat and are shot down, leading to a 99-year war, which leaves all sides in ruins. The song was released in 1983 and achieved world-wide success. 

Take note of the interesting war vocabulary, like Fliegerstaffel (flying squadron), Düsenflieger (jet planes), Benzinkanister (petrol canister) and Trümmer (ruins) - hopefully your use of this vocab will be limited to the theoretical. 

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2. Helene Fischer: Atemlos durch die Nacht (Breathless through the Night)

3. Marlene Dietrich: Sag mir, wo die Blumen sind (Tell me where the Flowers are)

Here’s another classic. Sag mir, wo die Blumen sind, was originally written in English and has since been translated into over 30 languages. Marlene Dietrich famously performed the German version in Israel in the '60s.

The song is pretty simple to follow, it isn’t too fast and utilises lots of repetition to strengthen its message of the futility of war. It begins with Dietrich asking where the flowers have gone and what has happened to them. The answer: the girls have picked them all in haste. Then Dietrich asks where the girls have gone, what has happened to them. This structure continues until it goes full circle and sees the flowers on the graves of dead soldiers. 

"Sag mir wo die Blumen sind,
wo sind sie geblieben
Sag mir wo die Blumen sind,
was ist geschehen?"

This song demonstrates the changing word order after question words like wo (where) and was (what), depending on whether the sentence is a question or a statement.

4. Rammstein: Ohne dich (Without You)

You can’t have a list of German songs without an appearance from German heavy metal gods Rammstein. Ohne dich is a pretty moody song, with lots of repetition of the phrase "ohne dich". So you're not likely to forget which case the prepositions ohne takes any time soon.

This song also has great examples for practising that pesky group of prepositions which take either accusative or dative dependent on movement: an, auf, hinter, in, neben, über, unter, vor, zwischen. A good example can be seen in the lines below.

"Doch der Abend werft ein Tuch aufs Land,
Und auf die Wege hinterm Waldrand..."

In the first line the movement makes auf take an accusative, while in the second hinter is describing a position and therefore takes a dative.

5. Howard Carpendale: Ti Amo (I Love You)

6. Wise Guys: Nur für dich (Only for You)

The Wise Guys are a German a cappella band whose quirky songs will always make you laugh. In this song, the main singer recounts all the things he did just for his girlfriend who has now left him.

The sentence structures are great to borrow from and adapt to your own situations if you want to bemoan all the little things you do just to please other people.

"Ich bin nur für dich mit dir in Bridget Jones gegangen
Ich hab' nur für dich mit dem Joggen angefangen"

The phrase "nur für dich" is embedded into each statement after the first verb. There's also some help in knowing which verbs take sein in the past.

7. Adel Tawil: Lieder (Songs)

A perfect tune to help with complicated word order problems. If you're not quite sure in which order to place all those little words in your sentence, Bendzko has the answer.

Even the title is a great example of knowing where all the adverbs, nouns and verbs go in a short phrase:

"Nur noch kurz die Welt retten"

Bendzko shows the hierarchy of the three adverbs, and also demonstrates that, in a phrase with no subject, adverbs come before nouns, which come before verbs. 

9. Cro: Whatever

Here's one from a guy who insists on always wearing a panda mask to protect his identity. If you want to know how a real German speaks (granted a younger German) then Cro takes you speedily through vocabulary you may need to describe a crazy night, or when chilling with mates.

"Das war mit Abstand die schlimmste Woche,
Die ich in meinem Leben je hatte.
Ich weiß nicht ob ich aufstehen soll
Und ich hab keinen Plan was ich mache."

You probably will have to take a look at the lyrics for this one, but if you can imitate Cro's speed, you'll sound like an absolute German pro in no time.

10. Julia Engelmann: Grapefruit