Symposium on Algorithms (ESA '93), held in Bad Honnef, near Boon, in Germany, September 30 - October 2, 1993. The symposium is intended to launchan annual series of international conferences, held in early fall, covering the field of algorithms. Within the scope of the symposium lies all research on algorithms, theoretical as well as applied, that is carried out in the fields of computer science and discrete applied mathematics. The symposium aims to cater to both of these research communities and to intensify the exchange between them. The volume contains 35 contributed papers selected from 101 proposals submitted in response to the call for papers, as well as three invited lectures: "Evolution of an algorithm" by Michael Paterson, "Complexity of disjoint paths problems in planar graphs" by Alexander Schrijver, and "Sequence comparison and statistical significance in molecular biology" by Michael S. Waterman.