This volume contains papers which were contributed for presentation at the international conference "Fundamentals of Computation Theory - FCT'91", held at Gosen, near Berlin, September 9 - 13, 1991. The symposium is the eighth in the series of FCT conferences organized every odd year. Previous FCT meetings took place in Posnan-Kornik (Poland, 1977), Wendisch-Rietz (GDR, 1979), Szeged (Hungary, 1981), Borgholm (Sweden, 1983),
Cottbus (GDR, 1985), Kazan (Soviet Union, 1987) and Szeged (Hungary, 1989). The programme of the conference, including invited lectures and selected contributions, falls into the following categories:
• Semantics and logical concepts in the theory of computing, formal
specification
• Automata and formal languages
• Computational geometry, algorithmic aspects of algebra and algebraic
geometry, cryptography
• Complexity (sequential, parallel, distributed computing, structure, lower
bounds, complexity of analytical problems, general concepts)
• Algorithms (efficient, probabilistic, parallel, sequential, distributed)
• Counting and combinatorics in connection with mathematical computer
science.