The German-Chinese pocket dictionary (《德華字典》) is a collection of daily-life words and expressions based on the local dialect of Qingdao and nearby towns at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. The editor named Albrecht Welzel (1867-1932) was a government official of Kiautschou-Bay, German colonial concession, from 1898 until 1914. He edited this dictionary, when he held his post as police chief from 1901. According to him, the main reader should be German who lived in Shandong. The notable features of this pocket dictionary are being entirely arranged by German in the alphabetical order, and using the spell system which was created by German linguists and diplomats, Paul Georg von Möllendorff (1847-1901). It consists of three parts: a preface, main text and an appendix. In the preface the editor explains briefly Chinese pronunciation rules, including consonant, vowel, diphthong, tones and intonation. It covers many words and sentences from social, political, economic, cultural, educational, religious fields. It not only reflects the social life at German colonial concession in the province of Shandong at that time and presents their contact with Chinese folk, but also shows the intellectual/spiritual world of the German government officials circles through the collected words and expressions. As an important historical and linguistic material, this dictionary has not yet been studied in detail. The aim of this study is to show how German words were adopted into Chinese, and to determine the features of an era of this dictionary.