  The large-volume liquid-scintillator detector LENA (Low Energy Neutrino
Astronomy) will provide high-grade background discrimination and enable the
detection of diffuse supernova neutrinos (DSN) in an almost background-free
energy window from ~10 to 25 MeV. Within ten years of exposure, it will be
possible to derive significant constraints on both core-collapse supernova
models and the supernova rate in the near universe up to redshifts z<2.
