Neutrinoless double-beta-decay could be the key to understanding the
nature of the neutrino: If observed it would prove 
its Majorana-nature and the half-life of the decay would be a direct 
measure of the yet unknown absolute scale of the neutrino mass.
The GErmanium Detector Array (GERDA) is designed to 
search for neutrinoless double-beta-decay of the isotope 76Ge. 
Germanium crystals enriched in 76Ge, acting as source and 
detector simultaneaously, will be submerged directly into their
ultra pure cooling medium that also serves as a radiation 
shield. This concept will allow for a background reduction of up to two
orders of magnitudes  with respect to earlier experiments, i.e. 
to a level of 
10^{-3} counts/kg/y/keV at the Q value of 2039 keV.
GERDA is being installed in the Hall A of the Gran Sasso underground 
Laboratory (LNGS), Italy. The design, status and reach 
of the experiment will be discussed.