Abstract: The study presents the results of one of the stages of complex cognitive-discursive study of the German verbs of motion and verbs of movement in space. The leading method of the research was a directional association experiment, the students and lectures of Erfurt University (Germany), namely of departments of philology and education, appeared for the informants. Topicality of this research depends on the increasing interest to cognitive understanding of the category of motion as essential condition of life. Cognitive interpretation of the results of such experiments gives very important information to describe this or that concept as reality of linguistic consciousness of the native speaker and allows to get the view of the national specificity of perception of reality. On the basis of the quantitative analysis and the analysis of lexico-semantic systematization of the meanings of verbal units, it has been ascertained that the native speakers of the German language have wide range of notions of movement. The words of near periphery and kernel components of the concept of motion are the verbs denoting changes of body position in space, relative to initial, intermediate and end points: laufen, rennen, gehen. The kernel of conceptual field of motion is the verb laufen. According to the index of brightness, it is represented the hierarchy of meanings of seme denoting movement in space, prototypical conception of which is quick movement on foot on earth surface. The reconstruction of the fragment of movement concept perception by the native speakers allows to carry out the contrastive analysis of perception of the categories of motion and movement in space by the representatives of different professional groups, native speakers of different structural languages and various cultures.