Berge Lesen Festival

The reading from the book “Was tun, wenn ...” (What to do when ...) will take place in the panorama room of the Ötscher Tower on December 8. The authors are planning an interactive reading with visualizations and the involvement of the children. The room offers a panoramic view of the surrounding landscape, so that the stories from the book can be linked to the natural habitats in the area around the village.

Verena Hochleitner is an Austrian illustrator and author. In April 2025, she was awarded the most important domestic prize for youth literature: the Christine Nöstlinger Prize 2025.

Together with Laura Momo Aufderhaar, Verena Hochleitner published the book “What to do if ...” in the summer of 2025, which provides tips for dealing with disasters and tells stories of people who have survived encounters with wild animals or forces of nature. In this book, two children have exciting, intelligent conversations about encounters with wild animals and natural disasters such as floods, fires, and earthquakes. They tell each other stories of people who have survived one or more of these disasters. Illustrated in bright special colors and supplemented by vivid graphics, the most important rules of conduct in the event of a minor or major disaster are presented in a simple and understandable way. The book also helps children understand climate change and its effects.

The Reading Mountain Festival will be integrated into the “Advent am See” event in Wienerbruck. The aim of the event is to bring the Christmas season and local traditions (St. Nicholas, Krampus, local farmers' market) to life. The integration of the Reading Mountains Festival will make the overall program even more diverse. Many visitors are expected to attend the two-day event, as pre-Christmas gatherings in the countryside are traditionally associated with the local traditions mentioned above. 

The Ötscher Base offers a good infrastructure for hosting such an event and contributes to it with activities such as a children's choir, catering services, and winter hikes. As an information center for the Alpine Convention, the Ötscher Base also provides a wealth of information material for the interested public.