Our German textbook "Festkdrperphysik" has become rather pop- ular among German-speaking students, and is currently produced in its 4th edition. Its version in English has already been adopted by many universities in the United States and other countries. This new 2nd edition corresponds to the 4th edition in German. In addition to correcting some typographical errors and making small improvements in the presentation, in the present edition some chapters have been revised or extended. Panel V, for example, has been extended to include a description of angle-resolved photoemis- sion and its importance for the study of electronic band structures. Section 10.10 on high-temperature superconductors has completely been rewritten. This active field of research continues to progress rapidly and many new results have emerged since the publication of the first edition. These results shed new light on much of the fun- damental physics. The new version of Sect. 10.10 has been developed in discussions with colleagues who are themselves engaged in superconductivity research. We thank, in particular, Professor C. Calandra from the University of Modena and Dr. R. Wordenweber of the Institute of Thin Film and Ion Technology at the Research Centre Jiilich. The revision of the problems was done with the help of Dr. W.