Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (English: "Second German Television"), ZDF, is a public-service German television broadcaster based in Mainz (Rheinland-Pfalz). It is run as an independent non-profit institution, which was founded by three German federal states (Bundesländer). ZDF is financed by television licence fees and advertising revenues. The ZDF is well known for its famous TV formats heute (newscast; established in 1963) and Wetten Dass..? (entertainment show; established in 1981).

ZDF was founded in 1961 by federal treaty, after the West German federal government's plan to set up a TV channel controlled by the federal government caused uproar. West Germany's constitution stipulated that regulation of culture and media was a compentency of the federal states (Bundesländer). The station began broadcasting from Eschborn near Frankfurt am Main on 1 April 1963, with a speech by the first director general (Intendant), Dr. Karl Holzamer. The channel broadcast its first programme in colour in 1967. In 1974, ZDF moved its base of operations to Mainz-Lerchenberg, after briefly being located in Wiesbaden. Thomas Bellut, the current director general, was elected by the ZDF Television Council in 2011.

Sigmar Gabriel (born 12 September 1959 in Goslar) is a German politician currently chairing the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).

On 15 December 1999, after the resignation of Gerhard Glogowski, who had succeeded Gerhard Schröder in office, Gabriel became Minister-President of Lower Saxony and served until 4 March 2003. After being voted out of office, he became the SPD's "Representative for Pop Culture and Pop Discourse" from 2003 to 2005, for which he was bestowed the nickname Siggi Pop. From 2005 to 2009 he was the Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety in the first cabinet of Angela Merkel (CDU).

He has promoted the International Renewable Energy Agency. He called the speeches of Thilo Sarrazin, his party colleague who wrote critically about immigration, "verbal violence," . Gabriel called Israel an "Apartheid-Regime".

Following the SPD's defeat in the federal election of 2009, Franz Müntefering resigned from the position of party chairman of the Social Democratic Party. Gabriel was nominated as his successor and was elected on 13 November 2009. Gabriel was re-elected as party chairman for a further two years at the SPD party conference in Berlin on 5 December 2011, receiving 91.6% of the vote.

Iain Glen (born 24 June 1961) is a Scottish film and stage actor.

Iain Glen was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and educated at the Edinburgh Academy, an independent school for boys (now co-educational) in Edinburgh, followed by the University of Aberdeen. He then trained at RADA in London, where he won the Bancroft Gold Medal.

In 1990, Glen won the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the 40th Berlin International Film Festival for his role in Silent Scream.

It was announced on August 20, 2009 that Glen would star as Ser Jorah Mormont in the HBO series Game of Thrones. He appeared in the second series of Downton Abbey as Sir Richard Carlisle, a tabloid publisher who is a suitor to and subsequently engaged to Lady Mary.

In the 2012 BBC drama series Prisoners' Wives he plays Paul the husband of Francesca whose comfortable life comes crashing down when he is imprisoned for drug trafficking.

Glen is the younger brother of Hamish Glen, theatre director, artistic director of The Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, and formerly artistic director of the Dundee Repertory Theatre. He was married to Susannah Harker from 1993 to 2004; they have one son, Finlay (born 1994). His partner is now Charlotte Emmerson, and they have a daughter Mary (born September 2007).

Peter René Cipiriano Baumann (born January 5, 1968), better known as DJ BoBo, is a Swiss singer, songwriter, dancer and music producer. He has sold 14 million records worldwide and has released 10 studio albums as well as a few compilation albums which have included his previous hits in a reworked format. DJ BoBo has also released as many as 34 singles to date, some of which have charted quite high, not only in German speaking countries, but also in other European territories.

As a dance music producer, his first big success came with the single "Somebody Dance with Me", which borrows its melody from Rockwell's Somebody's Watching Me. After this, he charted well with the singles "Keep on Dancing", "Take Control", "Everybody", "Let the Dream Come True", "Love Is All Around", "Freedom", "Pray" and "What a Feeling", as well as "Chihuahua", almost all of which comprised fast-paced Eurodance techno sound with female catchy refrains and rap performed by René. Between 1992 through 2007, he had 27 single chart-hits in Switzerland and Germany, and has won 10 World Music Awards for being Switzerland's best selling artist. René has received numerous Gold and Platinum certifications for his singles and albums and has found success in Europe (primarily in Germany and Switzerland), Asia and South America.