Double beta decay is indispensable to solve the question of the neutrino mass
matrix together with Ξ½ oscillation experiments. Recent analysis of the most
sensitive experiment since nine years - the HEIDELBERG-MOSCOW experiment in
Gran-Sasso - yields a first indication for the neutrinoless decay mode. This
result is the first evidence for lepton number violation and proves the
neutrino to be a Majorana particle. We give the present status of the analysis
in this report. It excludes several of the neutrino mass scenarios allowed from
present neutrino oscillation experiments - only degenerate scenarios and those
with inverse mass hierarchy survive. This result allows neutrinos to still play
an important role as dark matter in the Universe. To improve the accuracy of
the present result, considerably enlarged experiments are required, such as
GENIUS. A GENIUS Test Facility has been funded and will come into operation by
early 2003.Comment: 16 pages, latex, 10 figures, Talk was presented at International
Conference "Neutrinos and Implications for Physics Beyond the Standard
Model", Oct. 11-13, 2002, Stony Brook, USA, Proc. (2003) ed. by R. Shrock,
also see Home Page of Heidelberg Non-Accelerator Particle Physics Group:
http://www.mpi-hd.mpg.de/non_acc