Schwäbisch Gmünd (German pronunciation: [ˈʃvɛːbɪʃ ˈɡmʏnd̥]) is a town in the eastern part of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. With a population of around 62,000, the town is the second largest in the Ostalbkreis and the whole region of East Württemberg after Aalen. The town is a Große Kreisstadt, a chief town under district administration; it was the chief town of its own rural district until the district reform on January 1, 1973.

Schwäbisch Gmünd lies on the Rems river about 50 kilometers east of Stuttgart, the capital of Baden-Württemberg. It also lies at the northern foot of the Swabian Jura Mountains.

From 85 AD, the Neckar-Odenwald line was the frontier of the Roman Empire. The Romans built the Limes Germanicus to secure this border. Along the border they built fortifications in regular distances, which included a small castrum on the site of the Schirenhof farm in Schwäbisch Gmünd.

The first major settlement in this area was around the 2nd century AD, when Roman soldiers settled nearby the Limes. In the 3rd century the border lines were assaulted and taken by the Alemans, who settled down in the areas abandoned by the Romans.

Angela Dorothea Merkel, German: [aŋˈɡeːla doʁoˈteːa ˈmɛʁkl̩] ( listen); née Kasner (born 17 July 1954) is the Chancellor of Germany and Chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Merkel is the first female Chancellor of Germany.

A physical chemist by professional background, Merkel entered politics in the wake of the Revolutions of 1989 and briefly served as the deputy spokesperson for Lothar de Maizière's democratically elected East German government prior to the German reunification. Following reunification in 1990, she was elected to the Bundestag, where she has represented the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern since. She served as Federal Minister for Women and Youth 1991–1994 and as Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety 1994–1998 in Helmut Kohl's fourth and fifth cabinets. She was Secretary General of the CDU 1998–2000, and was elected chairperson in 2000. From 2002 to 2005, she was also chair of the CDU/CSU parliamentary coalition.

After her election as Chancellor following the 2005 federal election, she led a grand coalition consisting of her own CDU party, its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), until 2009. In the 2009 federal election, the CDU obtained the largest share of the votes, and formed a coalition government with the CSU and the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP).

Bud Spencer (born Carlo Pedersoli; 31 October 1929) is an Italian actor, filmmaker and former swimmer (he was the first Italian to swim 100m in less than a minute). He is known for past roles in action-comedy films together with his long time film partner Terence Hill. Growing from a successful swimmer in his youth, he got a degree in law, and has registered several patents.

Spencer was born in Santa Lucia, a historical rione of the city of Naples. He married Maria Amato in 1960, with whom he had three children: Giuseppe (1961), Christine (1962) and Diamante (1972). From 1947 to 1949 he worked in the Italian consulate in Recife, Brazil, where he learned fluent Portuguese. He changed his screen name in 1967 reportedly chosen to pay homage to Spencer Tracy as well as his favorite beer, Budweiser. Other sources report that he found it funny to call himself "bud" despite his weight and his imposing height at almost 6 ft 4 in (192 cm).

A successful swimmer in his youth, Spencer was the first Italian to swim the 100 m freestyle in less than one minute. He achieved this on 19 September 1950, when he swam the 100 m in 59.5 s. In the 1951 Mediterranean Games, he won a silver medal in the same 100 m freestyle event.