This volume on basic education presents for the first time a collection of previously discussed research findings and theoretical approaches, primarily developed at the University of Hamburg. It arises from studies linking literacy and German as a foreign language—a topic that could not be more relevant. Furthermore, it reflects the still relatively slow transition from literacy to basic education. The contributions consistently raise the question of how adult learning should be viewed—whether in terms of basic educational needs or in the context of an ascribed migration background, whether in the context of unemployment or in identity searches related to gender issues, whether informally in youth organizations or as facilitators of non-formal educational processes. The theoretical frameworks include the rather problematic concept of competence and the central concept of learning in Hamburg.