This book, an extended collection of lectures delivered at "Schloss Reisenburg" during the DMV-Seminar "Algebraic Geometry, 1991", aims at presenting Kodaira's vanishing theorem and several generalizations in a way which is as algebraic as possible. We develop the theory of logarithmic de Rham complexes, the use of the corresponding spectral sequence, lifting properties for manifolds and their Frobenius morphisms in characteristic p 0 and the proof of the degenration of the Hodge to de Rham spectral sequence with algebraic methods, due to P. Deligne and L. Illusie. We apply those methods to obtain vanishing theorems. Several typical applications and the generic theorems of M. Green and R. Lazarsfeld complete the picture. The exposition is self-contained and accessible to anyone with background in modern algebraic geometry. The necessary formalisms from cohomology theory are recalled in an appendix. The workshop organized by the Deutsche Mathematiker-Vereinigung (German Mathematics Society) are intended to help, in particular, students and younger mathematicians, to obtain an introduction to fields of current research. Through the means of these well-organized seminars, scientists form other fields can also be introduced to new mathematical ideas. The publication of these workshops in the series DMV SEMINAR will make the material available to an even larger audience.