This textbook gives a concise introduction to modern crystal structure determination, emphasising both its theoretical background and the way it actually occurs. The theoretical and experimental sections are supported by many illustrations, and lay emphasis on a good understanding rather than rigorous mathematics. The actual data collection techniques, and the methods of data reduction, structure solution and refinement are discussed from a practical point of view. Many tips and insigths help readers to recognise and avoid possible errors and traps, and to judge the quality of results. In the third English edition, based on the German eighth edition (Springer 2015), treatment of film methods, now extinct, and of the nearly extinct four-circle diffractometers has been omitted. Instead, the methods of obtaining and interpreting area detector data have been expanded, and e.g. actual alternative direct methods and time-resolved crystallography are included.