  We complement investigations of the gauge structure of general relativity
with an analysis of the physical consequences of the spontaneous breaking of
diffeomorphism invariance which manifests itself in e.g. the socalled Einstein
hole problem. We analyze the nature of the gravitons as Goldstone excitations
both in the classical and the quantum case. We show that the metrical field and
the classical space-time manifold play the role of an order parameter field and
order parameter manifold as macroscopic super structures living in an
underlying presumed quantum space-time. We furthermore relate our observations
to possible phase transitions in some pre big-bang era.
