[en] This article consists of three parts. In part one we review the present status of dense nuclear matter calculations, and introduce a representative collection of realistic nuclear equations of state which are derived for different assumptions about the physical behavior of dense matter (baryon population, pion condensation,.possible transition of baryon matter to quark matter). In part two we review recently performed non-rotating and rotating compact star calculations performed for these equations of state. The minimum stable rotational periods of compact stars, whose knowledge is of decisive importance for the interpretation of rapidly rotating pulsars, axe determined. For this purpose two different limits on stable rotation are studied: rotation at the general relativistic Kepler period (below which mass shedding at the star's equator sets in), and, secondly, rotation at the gravitational radiation-reaction instability (at which emission of gravitational waves set in which slows the star down). Part three of this article deals with the properties of hypothetical strange stars. Specifically we investigate the amount of nuclear solid crust that can be carried by a rotating strange star, and answer the question whether such objects can give rise to the observed phenomena of pulsar glitches, which is at the present time the only astrophysical test of the strange-quark-matter hypothesis