Culture of Belgium
Adolphe Sax, the inventor of the saxophone, was born in Belgium. The country has also a very active jazz scene that is achieving international recognition with bands like Aka Moon, Maak's Spirit and Octurn. Harmonicist Toots Thielemans, guitarist Philip Catherine and Django Reinhardt are probably the best known Belgian jazz musicians.
Ernst Mach
Ernst Waldfried Josef Wenzel Mach was born in Chrlice (), Moravia (then in the Austrian empire, now part of Brno in the Czech Republic). His father, who had graduated from Charles University in Prague, acted as tutor to the noble Brethon family in Zlín in eastern Moravia. His grandfather, Wenzl Lanhaus, an administrator of the Chirlitz estate, was also master builder of the streets there. His activities in that field later influenced the theoretical work of Ernst Mach. Some sources give Mach's birthplace as Tuřany (, now also part of Brno), the site of the Chirlitz registry-office. It was there that Ernst Mach was baptized by Peregrin Weiss. Mach later became a socialist and an atheist. His theory and life, though, was sometimes compared with Buddhism, namely by Heinrich Gomperz who addressed Mach as the "Buddha of Science" due to the phenomenalist approach of the "Ego" in his "Analysis of Sensations".