  Evolutionary effects with redshift of core collapse supernovae and their
application to cosmology have been studied based on an extensive grid of
stellar models between 13 and 25 Mo, and their light curves after the
explosion.
  With decreasing metallicity Z and increasing mass, progenitors tend to
explode as compact Blue Supergiants (BSG) and produce subluminous supernovae
which are about 1.5 mag. dimmer compared to 'normal' SNeII with Red Supergiant
(RSG) progenitors. Progenitors with small masses tend to explode as RSGs even
with low Z. The consequences are obvious for probing the chemical evolution.
  We identify 'extreme SNe IIp' supernovae as a rather homogeneous class which
may allow their use as standard candles for distance determination accurate
within 30 %. Due to their unique light curves, no spectra need to be taken for
their identification, and follow-up observations can be limited to a very small
dynamical range in brightness. This means that distance determination by
'extreme SNe IIp" are possible up to redshifts of about 3 using 8-meter class
telescopes. SIRTIF may push the limit by another magnitude.
