This thesis investigates the effect of buckling on rolled and welded sections and the load-bearing capacity of steel components. The study is divided into two main topics, plate and beam buckling. For this purpose, the European standards EN 1993-1 (Eurocode 3) and EN 13001-3 (crane construction standard) are compared. Based on the standards, the load-bearing capacity as well as the reduction in yield limit is analytically evaluated for a range of configurations, linear-elastically calculated for strength assessment under compressive, bending and combined loading. The applicability of the linear method is thereby studied. Next the plate and beam buckling behaviour of the profile sections are simulated by numerical calculation using the FEM program "MSC-Patran/Nastran" and compared with the calculation results of the standards. In the numerical simulation study, shell and beam models with different loads and boundary conditions were modelled and evaluated. The first part of this study provides a numerical database for standardized buckling loadcases, whereat the examined difference between the standard and finite element results is almost negligible and the FEM calculations provide an accurate solution. It should be noted, that EC3 is more precisely regulated and covers the loadcases in detail, as the bending stress is not considered in crane design standards (EN 13001-3) for beam buckling limit loads. The second part of this study deals with the buckling stability problem of three-sided and four-sided hinged plates. A numerical linear-elastic simulation study of plate configurations for combined stress loadcases, compression and bending, is examined. The load-bearing behaviour of these components and the effects of variations in geometry, clamping and type of load are described using parametrized model concepts. Concluding the buckling study of hinged plates, it was found that the thinner or the wider the plate gets, the lower is the load-bearing capacity and the higher the utilization ratio becomes. The calculation by FEM with the elastic behaviour of the material provides acceptable results compared to the standards. The observed difference can be reasoned to the lack of imperfections in the numerical study, which were purposefully not considered. Summing up, it can be stated that it is plausible to use the introduced type of linear-elastic FE simulation to examine the buckling limit loads for other loadcases as well and get quite comparable results to the discussed standards.