[en] Several QCD plus hadronisation models are compared to measured event shape distributions and the model parameters are adjusted to the data. QCD shower models provide a detailed description of hadronic Z⁰ decays and, with the smae model parameters, of lower energy e⁺e^- annihilation data as well. The momentum spectra of charged particles are consistent with the expectations of soft gluon coherence and Local Parton Hadron Duality. From a measurement of jet production rates, the strong coupling constant is determined to be, in second order perturbation theory, α_s(M_Z)=0.116±0.016. Jet production rates and 4-jet angular correlations provide evidence for the running of α_s and for the nonabelian structure of QCD. (orig.)