The Anamnese is the structured conversation at the start of care, when you find out why a patient is here and what happened before. Nurses often assume they need C1 German to manage it. They do not. The Anamnese is built from about thirty fixed questions and four grammar patterns, and most of it sits comfortably inside B1.
This guide gives you the questions, the grammar and the one convention that surprises almost every newcomer.
What Anamnese Actually Means
In German hospitals the word covers several distinct histories, and colleagues will use the terms casually.
Eigenanamnese - the history the patient gives about themselves
Fremdanamnese - history supplied by relatives or carers
Familienanamnese - family history
Sozialanamnese - housing, work, support at home
Medikamentenanamnese - current and recent medication
Berufsanamnese - occupational history
There is also a distinction worth knowing on day one. The ärztliche Anamnese is the doctor's medical history. The pflegerische Anamnese, or Aufnahmegespräch, is the nursing admission interview - and that is usually the one you will run.
If you are building towards that interview, the six domain headings below are the most efficient place to start, and they are exactly what you will rehearse when you learn German for clinical work.
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Thirty Questions, Grouped by Domain
Current Complaint
| German | English |
|---|---|
| Was führt Sie zu uns? | What brings you here? |
| Wo genau tut es weh? | Where exactly does it hurt? |
| Seit wann haben Sie diese Beschwerden? | Since when have you had these symptoms? |
| Wie stark sind die Schmerzen, von eins bis zehn? | How strong is the pain, from one to ten? |
| Strahlt der Schmerz aus? | Does the pain radiate? |
Past Medical History
| German | English |
|---|---|
| Haben Sie Vorerkrankungen? | Do you have pre-existing conditions? |
| Wurden Sie schon einmal operiert? | Have you ever had surgery? |
| Sind Sie in ärztlicher Behandlung? | Are you under medical care? |
| Haben Sie Allergien? | Do you have allergies? |
| Waren Sie schon einmal im Krankenhaus? | Have you been in hospital before? |
Medication
| German | English |
|---|---|
| Nehmen Sie regelmäßig Medikamente ein? | Do you take medication regularly? |
| Welche Medikamente nehmen Sie, und in welcher Dosierung? | Which medication do you take, and at what dose? |
| Nehmen Sie etwas bei Bedarf? | Do you take anything as needed? |
| Nehmen Sie Mittel, die Sie selbst gekauft haben? | Do you take anything you bought yourself? |
| Haben Sie einen Medikamentenplan? | Do you have a medication plan? |
Lifestyle
| German | English |
|---|---|
| Rauchen Sie? Wie viel? | Do you smoke? How much? |
| Trinken Sie Alkohol? | Do you drink alcohol? |
| Bewegen Sie sich regelmäßig? | Do you exercise regularly? |
| Wie schlafen Sie? | How do you sleep? |
| Haben Sie aktuell viel Stress? | Are you under a lot of stress at the moment? |
Social Situation
| German | English |
|---|---|
| Wo wohnen Sie? | Where do you live? |
| Leben Sie allein? | Do you live alone? |
| Wer unterstützt Sie zu Hause? | Who supports you at home? |
| Was machen Sie beruflich? | What do you do for work? |
| Brauchen Sie Unterstützung bei der Verständigung? | Do you need help communicating? |
Risk and Safety
| German | English |
|---|---|
| Sind Sie in letzter Zeit gestürzt? | Have you fallen recently? |
| Können Sie selbstständig zur Toilette gehen? | Can you get to the toilet independently? |
| Besteht die Möglichkeit, dass Sie schwanger sind? | Is there any possibility that you are pregnant? |
| Haben Sie eine Patientenverfügung? | Do you have an advance directive? |
| Gibt es etwas, das Sie mir noch sagen möchten? | Is there anything else you want to tell me? |
Six domains, five questions each. Together they cover the standard nursing admission interview.
The B1 Grammar That Does All the Work
You do not need the full German tense system for this. Four patterns carry it.
Perfekt for anything in the past. "Haben Sie schon einmal eine Operation gehabt?" Note that German uses the Perfekt in speech even where English would use the simple past.
Modal verbs for ability and necessity. "Können Sie selbstständig aufstehen?" and "Müssen Sie nachts auf die Toilette?"
Subordinate clauses with ob, wenn and weil, remembering that the verb moves to the end. "Ich möchte wissen, ob Sie Schmerzen haben." and "Sagen Sie mir bitte, wenn es schlimmer wird."
Konjunktiv II for politeness. "Könnten Sie mir das genauer beschreiben?" and "Ich hätte noch eine Frage."
Three Conventions That Surprise Newcomers
Sie is the default, always. Even with a nineteen-year-old patient, German clinical settings use Sie. Switching to du without an invitation is a genuine error, not a friendly gesture.
Direct questions are not rude. German medical questioning is notably blunt by Anglo-Saxon standards: "Rauchen Sie?" rather than "Do you perhaps smoke?". Softening it with vielleicht actually makes you sound unsure.
The Anamnesebogen does the work for you. Most German hospitals use a standard admission form with printed headings. Learn the form's section words and you have learned the interview structure for free.
Three Mistakes Worth Avoiding
Answering for the patient. Ask, then wait. German patients frequently pause before answering, and filling that pause with your own guess damages the record.
Skipping the medication history. It is the section with the highest clinical consequence, and the one foreign-trained nurses most often rush.
Writing a summary instead of the patient's words. In the record, quotation marks matter. "Patientin gibt an: 'Es zieht bis in den Arm'" is stronger than your paraphrase.
What B1 German Can and Cannot Do Here
B1 is enough for an Anamnese, on one condition: you control the questions rather than the vocabulary. All six domains work if the questions are pre-learned and the follow-ups are simple. What B1 cannot do is improvise a long explanation of pathophysiology, and you should not try.
When a patient asks something beyond your level, the honest move is short: "Das erkläre ich Ihnen gleich mit dem Arzt" or "Ich frage die Ärztin und komme zurück." Both keep the interview moving and neither costs credibility. Knowing your own level, and how to say so in German, is part of what it means to learn German for ward work.
From Knowing the Questions to Running the Conversation
The list above takes twenty minutes to read. Running the conversation means listening to an answer you did not expect, following up, and returning to your structure without losing the thread. That is a speaking skill, not a memorisation skill.
It is also the point at which many learners discover that B1 grammar was never the problem - the problem was never having said the questions out loud. Speaking them repeatedly is how you learn German that holds up in a real room.
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