Hadronic physics in electron-positron annihilation

The author presents an introduction to the study of hadronic physics by means of e+e- processes. After an introduction to the theory of the strong interactions and QCD the current accelerator facilities for such studies are listed. Then the treatment of e+e- annihilation into hadrons by QCD is discussed. Thereafter the studies of hadronic event shapes, jet physics, the tests of the basic quantum numbers of quarks and gluons, the measurement of αS, and the studies of the differences between quark and gluon jets are described. Finally an outlook to further studies of such processes at higher energies is given. (HSI)