On the occasion of the International Conference on Nonlinear Hyperbolic Problems held in St. Etienne, France, 1986 it was decided to start a two years cycle of conferences on this very rapidly expanding branch of mathematics and it*s applications in Continuum Mechanics and Aerodynamics. The second conference toolc place in Aachen, FRG, March 14-18, 1988. The number of more than 200 participants from more than 20 countries all over the world and about 100 invited and contributed papers, well balanced between theory, numerical analysis and applications, do not leave any doubt that it was the right decision to start this cycle of conferences, of which the third will be organized in Sweden in 1990. Thi S volume contains sixty eight original papers presented at the conference, twenty two cif them dealing with the mathematical theory, e.g. existence, uniqueness, stability, behaviour of solutions, physical modelling by evolution equations. Twenty two articles in numerical analysis are concerned with stability and convergence to the physically relevant solutions such as schemes especially deviced for treating shoclcs, contact discontinuities and artificial boundaries. Twenty four papers contain multidimensional computational applications to nonlinear waves in solids, flow through porous media and compressible fluid flow including shoclcs, real gas effects, multiphase phenomena, chemical reactions etc. The editors and organizers of the Second International Conference on Hyperbolic Problems would lilce to thanlc the Scientific Committee for the generous support of recommending invited lectures and selecting the contributed papers of the conference.