Austria

Erfurt – November 06, 2026 -- Season 24 of the ZDF docu-series "Die WG" can be streamed on kika.de and in the KiKA app from November 7, 2026. The season is titled "Die WG - Girls am Gletscher" and follows five girls aged 15 to 17 through a winter in the Stubai Valley in Austria, with no parents around.

Ice climbing, somersaults and a drill for kneading dough

The girls share a chalet and fill their days with snow activities. They try ice climbing, practice somersaults in a parkour park and stir dough with a power drill.

Work experiences range from tattoos to snowcats

In a tattoo studio, the teens design motifs and practice tattooing on artificial skin. They help maintain the glacier cable car and get to drive a snowcat.

Eschborn – November 04, 2026 -- Travelers in Germany and Austria can book a new eight-day flight tour to Rome, Naples and Sorrento from 849 euros. Tour operator trendtours is offering departures on various dates from October 2026 to April 2027.

Rome opens the trip with its best-known landmarks

The tour starts in Rome with a city tour past the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, Piazza Navona, the Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain. From there, the group heads south to see a different side of Italy.

Naples brings a guided walk through the old town

In Naples, a guided walk covers the historic old town, including Spaccanapoli, the historic heart of the port city. The route also takes in Via San Gregorio Armeno, known well beyond Italy for its nativity scene workshops.

Munich – November 04, 2026 -- The Austrian comedy "Aufputzt is' – Ein Weihnachtsdebakel" streams in the ARD Mediathek from December 15, 2026, and makes its German TV debut on December 25, 2026, at 10 p.m. on BR Fernsehen.

A Viennese site manager sinks into holiday chaos

Andi (Gery Seidl), a construction site manager in Vienna, is racing to finish a major contract just before Christmas. At the same time, he wants to give his wife Steffi (Marlene Morreis), her young daughter and the demanding mother-in-law a perfect holiday. Between picking up the Christmas tree and hunting for the doors ordered for the site, he is soon overwhelmed.

Vienna – October 29, 2026 -- Anyone heating with a wood stove in Austria needs a chimney sweep's assessment first, and usually has to register the stove with the municipality and get the landlord's consent. Energy provider Grünwelt Energie has outlined what households should know about the rules and the environmental side of heating with wood.

Chimney sweeps check safety before the first fire

The chimney sweep (Rauchfangkehrer) judges whether the structural requirements are met and whether exhaust gases can escape safely. Sufficient combustion air and safety clearances must also be in place.

Requirements differ by federal state and stove model, according to Grünwelt's experts. In most cases, a notification to the municipality is required, along with landlord approval for tenants.

Munich/Vienna – October 29, 2026 -- Shoppers in Germany and Austria can now ask an AI chatbot where to find nearby supermarket deals and whether a price is actually good. The feature, called "Frag den Guru" ("Ask the Guru"), is built into the free marktguru app for Android and iOS.

Chatbot opens with one tap and accepts text, voice or photos

A blue marktguru icon at the bottom right of the app opens the chat. Users can type a request or speak it. They can also upload a photo of their fridge contents or a handwritten shopping list to start the conversation.

From there, the chatbot picks out matching offers and links straight to the product or the relevant supermarket flyer. Suggestions follow the postcode saved in the app, so they reflect stores near the user.

Hall-Wattens – October 29, 2026 -- Visitors to Tyrol's Hall-Wattens region can see the three oldest nativity scenes in Austria this Christmas season, and from about December 22, 2026, locals will guide them through private crib displays.

Tulfes shepherds wear Lederhosen

The village crib in Tulfes features carved wooden jointed figures with movable arms and feet. Its shepherds wear traditional Tyrolean dress, including Lederhosen, instead of Middle Eastern clothing.

The display goes up before the third Sunday of Advent and stays until shortly before Sebastian's Day on January 20. The Christ child in Tulfes parish church can be seen from December 24.

Hall and Thaur hold 17th-century cribs

The crib in Hall's Jesuit church dates to 1609 and counts among the oldest in Central Europe. The Maxnhof in Thaur holds the oldest surviving private crib, dated to the first half of the 17th century.

Tübingen – October 29, 2026 -- Children who brush twice a day from their first milk tooth get one of the most regular taste experiences of early childhood, and many kids' toothpastes are deliberately intensely sweet. A dental prevention researcher now asks whether that daily routine could influence which flavors children prefer later.

Three learning factors meet at the bathroom sink

Research on "flavour learning" indicates that taste preferences begin forming during pregnancy and in the first years of life, with repeated taste exposure playing an important role. Toothpaste is used twice daily and stays in the mouth for a while during brushing. Parents often add praise, attention and playful rituals.

That combines repetition, intense sweetness and positive emotional reinforcement, three factors that can support learning. The release frames this as a question rather than a proven effect.

Styria – October 29, 2026 -- Dog owners in Austria and Germany can now add a daily herbal supplement to their pet's bowl: Styrian company Hanfred has launched its Daily Dose herbal sticks, available immediately.

The line comes in four variants: Gut, Joints, Relax and Sensitive. Each contains a selected herb blend in an individually portioned sachet that mixes straight into the dog's regular food. The packaging comes in colored metallic designs.

Hanfred grows the herbs on its own Styrian fields

The company follows what it calls a farm-to-bowl philosophy, which stands for traceable origin and transparent recipes. Co-founder Isabella Hörtner-Fraiss says the aim is to make functional feed supplements as simple as possible and to show how regional herbs fit with modern product concepts.

Cologne – October 29, 2026 -- Interior insulation can raise the wall surface temperature in winter by around five degrees Celsius, cutting the risk of condensation and mold in older buildings without touching the facade.

Cold exterior walls encourage condensation and, with it, mold. Anyone who wants to prevent that and protect the building fabric should watch wall surface temperatures. Insulation can raise them, lower mold risk and reduce heat loss. The right choice between exterior and interior insulation depends on the building's structure, its facade and the effort involved.

Kufstein – October 29, 2026 -- Kufstein Fortress in Tyrol, named one of Austria's nine most beautiful places for 2026, offers a 21-station tour, a daily organ concert at noon and a concert arena for up to 4,200 people. The ORF programme "9 Plätze – 9 Schätze" gave the award. The fortress now ranks among Tyrol's most visited sights.

A border post that became a bridal gift

The fortress was first mentioned in documents in 1205. For centuries it was a contested border post between Bavaria and Tyrol. In the 14th century it became a wedding present for the Tyrolean duchess Margarete "Maultasch".

Emperor Maximilian I captured it in 1504 and had it expanded into a powerful fortification. The town of Kufstein has owned it since 1924, acquired in exchange for several hectares of forest.