  The influence of uniaxial anisotropy and the dipole interaction on the
direction of the magnetization of ultra-thin ferromagnetic films in the
ground-state is studied. The ground-state energy can be expressed in terms of
anisotropy constants which are calculated in detail as function of the system
parameters and the film thickness. In particular non-collinear spin
arrangements are taken into account. Conditions for the appearance of a spin
reorientation transition are given and analytic results for the width of the
canted phase and its shift in applied magnetic fields associated with this
transition are derived.
