Cosmic Rays in the Energy Range of the Knee - Recent Results from KASCADE --

A brief motivation for studying cosmic rays at energies 10^14 < E < 10^17 eV is given. Besides astrophysical interests in identifying and understanding their sources, there are also particle physics aspects related to their transport properties in the galaxy or to their detection via extensive air showers. The KASCADE air shower experiment taking data at Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe (Germany) provides important information to both of these topics of particle-astrophysics research. A target of particular interest is the so-called 'knee' in the cosmic ray energy spectrum at E_k = 4 x 10^15 eV. Recent results adding knowledge to an understanding its origin will be presented as well as results on tests of high-energy hadronic interaction models required for air shower simulations.