  A convergent method to extract the nuclear level density and the gamma-ray
strength function from primary gamma-ray spectra has been established.
Thermodynamical quantities have been obtained within the microcanonical and
canonical ensemble theory. Structures in the caloric curve and in the heat
capacity curve are interpreted as fingerprints of breaking of Cooper pairs and
quenching of pairing correlations. The strength function can be described using
models and common parameterizations for the E1, M1 and pygmy resonance
strength. However, a significant decrease of the pygmy resonance strength at
finite temperatures has been observed.
