Abstract. In the presented work, an experimental investigation has been performed to characterize the strain rate dependency of unidirectional carbon fiber reinforced polyamide-6 composite for longitudinal compression loading. An end-loaded compression specimen geometry, suitable for contactless optical strain measurement via digital image correlation and dynamic loading in a split-Hopkinson pressure bar, was developed. For the dynamic experiments at a constant strain rate of 100 s −1 a modified version of the Dynamic Compression Fixture, developed by Koerber and Camanho [Koerber and Camanho, Composites Part A, 42, 462-470, 2011] was used. The results were compared with quasi-static test results at a strain rate of 3 · 10 −4 s −1 using the same specimen geometry. It was found that the longitudinal compressive strength increased by 61% compared to the strength value obtained from the quasi-static tests.