The Germanium Detector Array (Gerda) is a low background experiment at the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS) of the INFN designed to search for the rare neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ) of76Ge. In its first phase, high purity germanium diodes inherited from the former Heidelberg-Moscow and Igexexperiments are operated “bare” and immersed in liquid argon, with an overall background environment of 10−2 cts/(keV·kg·yr), a factor of ten better than its predecessors. Measurements on two-neutrino double beta decay (2νββ) givingT1/22ν=(1.88±0.10)×1021 yrand recently published background model and pulse shape performances of the detectors are discussed in the paper. A new result on0νββhas been recently published with a half-life limit on0νββdecayT1/20ν>2.1×1025 yr(90% C.L.). A second phase of the experiment is scheduled to start during the year 2014, after a major upgrade shutdown. Thanks to the increased detector mass with new designed diodes and to the introduction of liquid argon instrumentation techniques, the experiment aims to reduce further the expected background to about 10−3 cts/(keV·kg·yr) and to improve the0νββsensitivity to aboutT1/20ν>1.5×1026 yr(90% C.L.).