This book is based on three main seminars on network analysis that I held in 1991, 1993, and 1997 at the universities of Bochum and Düsseldorf. In the summer of 1997, a teaching letter for the FernUniversität Hagen was created on this basis, which is supervised there by Uwe Schimank. Concurrently, the idea for a textbook on network analysis emerged, as it became clear in the seminars that there was a lack of an introductory German publication in this field. Many individuals from various locations and in many ways have contributed to this book. First, I would like to thank the students in the seminars, who enforced clarity and coherence in the presentation through their head-shaking and persistent questioning. In particular, I would like to thank two seminar participants, Rainer Diaz-Bone and Burkhardt Margies, who were involved in Bochum and Düsseldorf.