On your marks, sausage dogs, get set, go!

Hurtling hounds

The starting signal sounds, and off the sausage dogs race on their short legs. It’s a 40-metre dash to the finishing line. Their floppy ears flapping, the eager pooches gallop across the grass - at times it’s almost as if they were flying. Then one pulls ahead and is first across the finishing line. With a time of just 5.6 seconds, Fiete is the fastest standard dachshund – at the first German Dachshund Championships in 2025. The love affair between sausage dogs and Germans has evolved over centuries. Originally bred for hunting badgers, these diminutive hounds also race competitively these days.

How to lure a stag

What’s that loud sound that can be heard from near and far? Without doubt the “call of a young, searching stag”. Each year, dozens of people gather to take part in the Stag Calling Championshipsand show off their perfect imitation of the stag’s bellow. They compete in three categories. Besides mimicking deer calls, they also blow into shells, horns or plastic tubes. Though this may appear a bit odd, it has a very practical purpose. Imitating the animal’s bellow is a hunting technique used to lure stags.

The skill of the forklift operator

In 2025, Germany won the Forklift World Championship. At theForklift World Championship in Aschaffenburg in Bavaria, the world’s best forklift operators compete against one another. Nerves of steel, finesse and complete control of the vehicle are essential. Whether it’s about manoeuvring a stacked tower over a ramp or transporting a tray of golf balls: speed and precision are what count.

Nowhere to relax and have a break

Holidays, sun, sea and beach chairs: it could hardly sound more relaxing. But it’s quite the opposite on the Baltic Sea island of Usedom. Every year, enthusiastic beach chair carriers compete for glory at the Beach Chair World Championship. Who can carry a 60 kg Strandkorb - a special type of German beach chair - over a distance of 20 metres the quickest? 2025 saw a sensational achievement: the winning team set a new world record of 4.56 seconds.

Who will pull whom across the table?

Magnesium, strength and hardened skin are vital for finger wrestling. This traditional contest in Bavaria has been pursued for centuries. It involves two people each trying to pull the other across a table using just one finger. Usually, the strong middle finger is the “wrestling finger”: competitors loop it through a leather strap - and then the pulling starts.