Photoexcitation of baryon resonances

The study of baryon resonances via meson photoproduction reactions on the free proton, nucleons bound in light nuclei and in the nuclear medium is discussed. Special emphasis is laid on the production of neutral mesons which due to the suppression of non-resonant backgrounds are particularly well suited for the study of excited states of the nucleon. Experiments carried out during the last ten years with the TAPS-detector at the Mainz MAMI accelerator have contributed very significantly to the detailed investigation of the four lowest lying baryon resonances the P-33(1232), the P-11(1440), the D-13(1520) and the S-11(1535). Future experiments with TAPS at the ELSA accelerator have a large potential for the investigation of higher lying resonances via many different decay channels.