[en] The techniques of applying cooled germanium detectors to obtain high resolution measurements of hard X-ray and gamma-ray spectra from cosmic sources are discussed. Energy resolutions of better than 2 keV (FWHM) in the MeV region are achieved in the laboratory, representing an improvement of about a factor of 40 over conventional scintillators. Recent development of large intrinsic (pure) germanium detectors facilitates the construction of large multiple sensor arrays with sufficient detection sensitivities for gamma-ray astronomy in the MeV region. Hence, germanium detectors provide an effective tool to conduct a stringent search for gamma-ray lines and fine structural features in the presence of a continuum background. (Auth.)