Rock fall constitutes a serious hazard to persons and infrastructure in mountainous areas. To reduce the risk resulting from this hazard two technical strategies are applied namely to prevent the rock fall event (primary measures) or to reduce the damaging effects of rock falls (secondary measures). The focus of this thesis is on secondary measures. The most widely applied secondary measures are flexible falling rock protection kits, which are able to absorb high energy impacts due to their structured and modular composition that allows high elastic and plastic deformations. The performance potential of these systems is assessed by means of standardised tests. In Europe, this is the test procedure according to ETAG 027 (Guideline for European Technical Approval of Falling Rock Protection Kits). The central feature of this test is the application of kinetic energy in the centre module of a three-module system by a standardized, high spherical concrete block. In this test situation the rock hits the protection system in a very favourable position that leads to a relatively small braking force. This testing scenario does not accommodate the differences of the system´s stiffness along its height and lateral extent. The high cost of falling rock tests on a one to one scale prevents non-standard testing situations with the consequence that little is known about the performance of falling rock protection kits under general loading conditions. For this reason a laboratory testing system based on physical modelling principles has been developed. The modelling system has been evaluated and calibrated using performance data of a commercial falling rock protection kit of energy class 5 (2.000kJ) which was extensively tested on a one to one scale at the Erzberg mine. Scale factors for length of 1:20, for time of 1:4,5 and for force of 1:1.500 were used for modelling. To ensure the mechanical similarity the modelling is based on the equilibrium of inert forces and weight. Therefore, the energy balance of the process (energy impact vs. work done by the system) was used as evaluation criteria to calibrate the model. After demonstrating the validity of the laboratory testing system seven tests were conducted using a vertical testing setup and five tests were carried out using an inclined testing setup. By lab scale testing the two test arrangements which are used for system evaluation according to ETAG 027 (vertical and inclined setup) could be compared under same boundary conditions for the first time. Therefore, an inclination of the reference slope of 30°, which meets the situation at the Austrian test site, was used for the inclined testing setup. The comparative tests did not show significant differences between the two test arrangements concerning system work and its distribution to single components. Nonstandard energy impacts were realised by the use of different impact positions for both the vertical and the inclined test arrangement. Thus, it could be verified that not just the amount of the braking force and consequently the system´s operating curve depend on the impact position, but also its distribution to single components. That is why the testing of decentral impact positions should be an important part of the evaluation process of falling rock protection kits (worst place scenario). This thesis generally proves that lab scale testing of flexible falling rock protection kits is not just possible but delivers important information for both system evaluation and design. Since almost all conceivable load cases can be realised under controlled and repeatable conditions, lab scale testing could also be an appropriate tool to calibrate numerical simulation programs for system design in the future. The residual risk using falling rock protection kits as secondary protection measure against rock fall events would be reduced and safety generally would be increased by a