  Hagedorn states (HS) are a tool to model the hadronization process which
occurs in the phase transition region between the quark gluon plasma (QGP) and
the hadron resonance gas (HRG). These states are believed to appear near the
Hagedorn temperature $T_H$ which in our understanding equals the critical
temperature $T_c$. A covariantly formulated bootstrap equation is solved to
generate the zoo of these particles characterized baryon number $B$,
strangeness $S$ and electric charge $Q$. These hadron-like resonances are
characterized by being very massive and by not being limited to quantum numbers
of known hadrons. All hadronic properties like masses, spectral functions
etc.are taken from the hadronic transport model Ultra Relativistic Quantum
Molecular Dynamics (UrQMD). Decay chains of single Hagedorn states provide a
well description of experimentally observed multiplicity ratios of strange and
multi-strange particles. In addition, the final energy spectra of resulting
hadrons show a thermal-like distribution with the characteristic Hagedorn
temperature $T_H$. Box calculations including these Hagedorn states are
performed. Indeed, the time scales leading to equilibration of the system are
drastically reduced down to 2...5 fm/c.
