Hard coatings playa continuously increasing role in the field of tribology as well as for decorative applications. In both areas they are often also exposed to corrosive media. While especially hard nitride coatings show a high corrosion resistance for themselves, hard $coating_strate systems may suffer from a severe corrosion attack due to the defects in the coating structure (pores, pinholes) resulting from the PVD-typical film morphology. While a huge number of investigations cover the tribological properties, only limited studies deal with the corrosion behavjour of coating substrate systems and attempts are made to improve their corrosion resistance. The present paper shortly describes the corrosion mechanisms and repots characteristic examples of the system behaviour. Special emphasis is laid on recent investigations to improve the corrosion resistance by alloying, interlayers or multilayered coating structures.es.