Abstract Objectives The aims of this study were to develop a German version of the Child Perceptions Questionnaire for children aged 8 to 10 years (CPQ-G8–10), a measure of oral health-related quality of life, and to assess the instrument’s reliability and validity. Methods The original English version of the CPQ8–10 questionnaire was translated into German (CPQ-G8–10) by a forward-backward translation method. A total of 409 8- to 10-year-old children who were recruited at the Department of Paediatric Dentistry in Vienna, Austria, participated in this study. The children self-completed the CPQ-G8–10 and were clinically examined for the presence of dental caries and plaque accumulation. Reliability of CPQ-G8–10 was investigated in a subsample of 58 children after 3 weeks. Results Questionnaire summary score test-retest reliability was 0.85 (intraclass correlation coefficient, 95% confidence interval (CI) ranging from 0.75 to 0.91) and internal consistency was 0.88 (Cronbach’s alpha, lower limit of the 95% CI: 0.87). Validity of the CPQ-G8–10 questionnaire was supported by correlation coefficients with global ratings of oral health of − 0.40 (95% CI − 0.49 to − 0.31) and overall well-being of − 0.26 (95% CI − 0.33 to − 0.13) which met the expectations. Mean CPQ-G8–10 scores were statistically significantly higher in children with caries (dmft+DMFT > 0) compared with caries-free children (p = 0.02). Conclusions The German version of the CPQ8–10 was found to be reliable and valid in children aged 8 to 10 years. Clinical relevance These findings enable assessments of oral health-related quality of life in German speaking 8- to 10-year-old children.