  The GENIUS (\underline {Ge}rmanium in Liquid \underline {Ni}trogen \underline
{U}nderground \underline {S}etup) project has been proposed in 1997
\cite{KK-BEY97} as first third generation double beta decay project, with a
sensitivity aiming down to a level of an effective neutrino mass of $<m>\sim$
0.01 - 0.001 eV. Such sensitivity has been shown to be indispensable to solve
the question of the structure of the neutrino mass matrix which cannot be
solved by neutrino oscillation experiments alone \cite{KKPS}. It will allow
broad access also to many other topics of physics beyond the Standard Model of
particle physics at the multi-TeV scale. For search of cold dark matter GENIUS
will cover almost the full range of the parameter space of predictions of SUSY
for neutralinos as dark matter \cite{KK-Ram,Bed-KK2}. Finally, GENIUS has the
potential to be the first real-time detector for low-energy (pp and $^7{Be}$)
solar neutrinos \cite{Bau-KK,KKPropos99}. A GENIUS-Test Facility has just been
funded and will come into operation by end of 2001.
