Batteries play an important role in our daily lives, the most commonly used batteries being alkaline manganese cells. These can be used in e.g. remote controls, toys, flashlights, etc. Apart from the steel casing, alkaline manganese cells contain relatively large quantities of black mass, mainly consisting of zinc and manganese. Currently, pyrometallurgical procedures are primarily used to recover these valuable materials, but hydrometallurgical procedures also offer promising opportunities. The first part of this master thesis provides an overview of the pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical methods for the recycling of black mass from alkaline manganese cells. On the one hand, procedures are described that are already used extensively, on the other hand, innovative procedures are presented that were previously only described in literature or patents. Furthermore, current areas of application of various zinc and manganese compounds are described. In the second part of the master thesis, a black mass from the treatment of alkaline manganese batteries was subjected to hydrometallurgical treatment with the aim of regaining zinc and manganese. Various acids for leaching zinc and manganese were applied in order to optimize the process. Other significant influencing factors and conditions such as the solid-liquid ratio, the concentration of acids and the temperature were also varied during several test series. Precipitation tests for selective recovery of zinc and manganese were performed on the obtained leachable solution. The experiments showed that the hydrometallurgical treatment of the black mass is well suited for recovering zinc and manganese.