Free German reading, level B1-B2
Learn German with Knulp, Hesse's gentle portrait of a wandering vagabond
Three loosely linked stories about a charming drifter who never quite settles, in Hesse's calm, unhurried German.
Learn German with this book for freeKnulp follows a charming, restless drifter through three loosely linked stories, written in the same calm, unhurried German Hesse used for Siddhartha, gentler than most classics on this site. Lira keeps the original text unabridged, but every unfamiliar word is one tap away from a translation, and every word you look up gets scheduled for review so the vocabulary actually sticks.
Key vocabulary from Knulp
A preview of the words you'll run into early on, with pronunciation. Every one of them, and every other word you tap while reading, gets saved to your review deck automatically.
das Spital
hospital
entlassen
to discharge, release
das Fieber
fever
wandern
to wander, hike
das Unterkommen
lodging, shelter
der Landstreicher
tramp, vagrant
What actually happens while you read
One tap to translate
Click any unfamiliar word for its contextual translation, right inside the page. No dictionary tab, no losing your place in the story.
Every word saved with its sentence
The word you looked up keeps the exact sentence you found it in, not an isolated flashcard, so the meaning stays anchored to real context.
FSRS brings it back before you forget
Spaced repetition schedules each word's next review right before you'd naturally lose it, so vocabulary from this book actually stays with you.
Anfang der neunziger Jahre mußte unser Freund Knulp einmal mehrere Wochen im liegen, und als er wurde, war es Mitte Februar und scheußliches Wetter, so daß er schon nach wenigen Wandertagen wieder Fieber spürte und auf ein bedacht sein mußte.
TRANSLATION
hospital
CONTEXT
Anfang der neunziger Jahre mußte unser Freund Knulp einmal mehrere Wochen im Spital liegen, und als er entlassen wurde, war es Mitte Februar und scheußliches Wetter, so daß er schon nach wenigen Wandertagen wieder Fieber spürte und auf ein Unterkommen bedacht sein mußte.
Start reading free →The science
Recognizing a word isn't the same as remembering it
According to Stephen Krashen's comprehensible input hypothesis, a language is acquired durably through exposure to content you mostly already understand, not through isolated word lists. Reading a real book supplies exactly that kind of exposure. Spaced repetition on top of it is what turns a word you translated once into one you actually remember weeks later.
Learning approach
Retention with Lira
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