Then I give a full proof of the fact due to Grigorchuk that there are groups of intermediate growth. For residually finite-p groups the relationship with Lie algebras is also described.
In the final chapter I proof that every finitely generated group G with finite abelianization can be embedded in a 2-generated group G* of the same growth type, i.e. both have polynomial growth, intermediate growth, or exponential growth. Moreover, G* can be chosen to be residually finite (P-periodic or conjugacy seperable) whenever G is residually finite (P-periodic or conjugacy seperable); here P is a set of primes.
The full work (in german) is downloadable as gzipped dvi (68 kB), post-script (254 kB), or pdf (170 kB) files.