Most calorimeters used in high energy physics measure the energy loss of a particle in form of ionization (free charges) or scintillation light. However, a large fraction of the deposited energy in form of heat remains undetected. The energy resolution of these devices is therefore mainly driven by the statistical fluctuations of the number of charge carriers or photoelectrons involved in an event. In contrast, cryogenic calorimeters are able to measure the total deposited energy including the heat in form of phonons or quasi-particles in a superconductor. With the appropriate phonon or quasi-particle detection system much higher energy resolutions can be obtained due to the very large number of low energy quanta (meV) involved in the process. This feature makes cryogenic calorimeters very effective in the detection of very small energy deposits (eV) with resolutions more than an order of magnitude better than for example semiconductor devices. During the last two decades cryogenic detectors have been developed to explore new frontiers in physics and astrophysics. Among these are the quest for the dark matter in the universe, the neutrinoless double beta decay and the mass of the neutrino. But other fields of research have also benefited from these developments, such as astrophysics, material and life sciences. The calorimetric measurement of deposited energy in an absorber dates back to 1878, when the American astronomer S.P. Langley invented the bolometer [1]. With this device he was able to measure the energy flow of the sun in the far infrared region of the spectrum and to determine the solar constant. Since then the bolometer has played an important role to measure the energy of electromagnetic radiation