  We present a chiral effective model which exhibits all the known symmetry
features of the QCD Lagrangian. The extended Linear Sigma Model (eLSM) includes
(pseudo-)scalar and (axial-) vector mesons, glueballs, and baryons. It has
proven to be a useful tool to understand the nature of the low-energy
resonances. It can be used to describe the masses and decay widths of the known
low-energy mesons and to disentangle the complicated picture of resonances in
the low-energy range. We can answer some of the open questions in the
low-energy region, e.g. the resonance (f_0(1500)) is a predominantly glueball
state and the resonance (f_0(1370)) is most likely the chiral partner of the
pion. We could also find that the resonance (N(1650)) is favoured as the chiral
partner of the nucleon (N(939)). In addition the temperature dependence of the
chiral condensate and the glueball condensate can be used to study the phase
diagram at nonzero temperatures and densities. At nonzero density we achieve
nuclear matter saturation.
