The Ganz (Ganz vállalatok, "Ganz companies") electric works in Budapest is probably best known for the manufacture of tramcars, but was also a pioneer in the application of three-phase alternating current to electric railways. Ganz also made: ships (Ganz Danubius), bridge steel structures (Ganz Acélszerkezet), high voltage equipment (Ganz Transelektro). Notable engineers employed by Ganz in the field were Kálmán Kandó and Ottó Bláthy. The company is named after Ábrahám Ganz. In 2006, the power transmission and distribution sectors of Ganz Transelektro were acquired by Crompton Greaves, but still doing business under the Ganz brand name, while the unit dealing with electric traction (propulsion and control systems for electric vehicles) was acquired by Škoda Holding and is now a part of Škoda Electric.

Before 1919, the company built ocean liners, dreadnought type battleship and submarines, power plants, automobiles and fighter planes too.

The company was founded by Abraham Ganz in 1844. He established his own iron foundry in Buda. Consequently this factory played an important role in building the infrastructure of Hungarian Kingdom. At this time the agricultural machines, steam-locomotives, pumps and the railway carriages were the main products. At the beginning of the 20th century 60-80% of the factory's products were sold for export. On this base there has developed the firm-group which companies assist continuously the development of the Hungarian Machinery Industry.

Sam Rockwell (born November 5, 1968) is an American actor known for his leading roles in Lawn Dogs, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Choke and Moon, as well as for his supporting roles in The Green Mile, Iron Man 2, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Frost/Nixon, Galaxy Quest, Matchstick Men, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Conviction and Cowboys & Aliens.

He was born in Daly City, California, the son of actors who divorced when he was five years old. He was raised by his father, Pete Rockwell, in San Francisco, while his mother, Penny Hess, stayed behind in New York (he spent his summer vacations with her). Rockwell had what The New York Times described in 1998 as a "footloose upbringing" and, at age 10, made his brief stage debut playing Humphrey Bogart in an East Village improv comedy sketch starring his mother. His mother had an unconventional lifestyle – she was involved with hippies, sex, and drugs.

He attended San Francisco School of the Arts with Margaret Cho and dropped out before graduation. He later received his high school diploma after his parents enrolled him in an Outward Bound-style alternative high school called Urban Pioneers because, as Rockwell explained, "I just wanted to get stoned, flirt with girls, go to parties." The school, the actor said, "had a reputation as a place stoners went because it was easy to graduate," but the program ended up helping him regain an interest in performing. After appearing in an independent film during his senior year, he graduated and moved to New York to pursue an acting career.

Patrizio Franco Buanne (20 September 1978, Naples) is an Italian singer baritone, songwriter, producer. He was previously with Universal Music UK worldwide , but has later signed a record deal with Warner Music Germany for GSA and Concord Records USA worldwide.

Patrizio Buanne spent his childhood living and traveling from an early age between his family's hometown Naples, Italy, and Vienna, Austria, for his parents' restaurant business, developing a passion for languages. But another gift was emerging from an early age — a gift for singing and entertaining.

Buanne began participating in talent contests at age 11. Several small musical productions and gigs with his self-formed rock and roll band and as a solo performer followed. When he was seventeen, a music industry manager proposed a performance at the occasion of the Papal visit in Wroclaw, Poland. The song, which was half in Italian, half in Polish, had been written for the opening mass, and with 85,000 people in attendance, the exposure led to his first local record dealAngelo di Dio (1997). When his father died of cancer that year and Buanne himself suffered a perforated ulcer, he said, “It was music and the goal to make my family proud that kept me alive and made me strong” Patrizio. At nineteen, Buanne graduated from school in Vienna and moved back to Italy. He attended university in Rome to study languages, while looking for opportunities in the entertainment industry. He was a guest and entertainer on Italian television shows such as “Momenti di Gloria”, “Domenica In” and “Libero”. This led to a contract with the production company that produced shows for the Italian Broadcasting Corporation, RAI and Mediaset. Buanne also invested his own money in tours and independently distributed CDs and DVD’sShake the Spaghetti/CD and DVD (2002).

Dirk Bach (23 April 1961 in Cologne) is a German television comedy actor, best known as Pepe in the German version of Sesamstraße and as an actor in television series Lukas.

After school Bach worked in theatres in Amsterdam, Brussels, London, New York City, Utrecht and Vienna, Boggalhausen. In 1992 Bach was part of the theatre group in Cologne at the Schauspielhaus and appeared on the German television channel RTL on the Dirk Bach Show. Bach performed in Lukas (1996–2001) on the German television channel ZDF, for which he received the Telestar award (1996), the German Comedy Award (1999) and the Goldene Kamera (2001).

In 2002, Bach starred in Der kleine Mönch on German television channel ZDF. Bach worked in Sesamstraße as the character Pepe. He often performs with Hella von Sinnen on different television productions. Since 2004, Bach and Sonja Zietlow present the German edition of the show I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! on channel RTL. And in 2005 Bach played the character Urmel in Urmel aus dem Eis. Since 2006 Bach has presented the German game show Frei Schnauze on channel RTL.

Wolfgang "Wolle" Petry (born 22nd September 1951) is a former musician from Cologne, Germany. He was the leading German language musician in terms of chart figures in 1997, with his most successful album "Alles".

Echo awards