The behaviour of concrete slabs under impact load at medium strain rates like a rock fall or vehicle impact is studied in this work. The results of drop tower experiments with heights up to 9 m are presented and compared to the results of Finite Element simulations. The influence of load intensities and different concrete types (ordinary concrete, high performance concrete, ultra high performance concrete) is analysed. With regard to an increase of the impact resistance, the influence of an additional textile strengthening layer is investigated. It is shown that the protective effect of slabs with textile layer is significantly improved compared to slabs without a textile layer. Strain gauges are used to measure strains and strain rates at the slab surface. Photogrammetry is used to measure the displacement distribution. The damage due to the different impact load of the drop tower experiments is analysed and compared to the results of the numerical simulation. Furthermore, the numerical model provides insight to the interior stresses and strains. For the simulation, a novel viscous elastic retarded damage (VERD) material formulation is used, which is able to depict the rate dependence of concrete strength. The model allows reproducing both, inertia effects and strength increase caused by the impact load.