We study the phase structure and the chiral limit of 4d compact lattice QED with Wilson fermions (both dynamical and quenched). We use the standard Wilson gauge action and also a modified one suppressing lattice artifacts. Different techniques and observables to locate the chiral limit are discussed. (orig.)SIGLEAvailable from TIB Hannover: RA 2999(94-151) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekDeutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), Bonn (Germany)DEGerman