Modern cranes built for the handling of containers should work efficiently concerning the energy consumption, and should also decrease the time of the handling process by using high trolley velocities. On the other hand these cranes should be able to reach the target positions precisely and without residual vibrations. Especially, the trolley accelerations needed to shorten the operating cycles excite the load as well as the crane structure, leading to vibrations, which should be reduced by suitable control methods. This Dissertation develops energy and time optimal control methods on the basis of suitable models of container handling systems for transferring a load unit. Based on the Pontryagin maximum principle the optimal control methods are determined. Their disadvantage, however, is that they react very sensitively on the inaccuracies of the system parameters. Especially, the data of the containers is very often not known exactly. That is why the input shaping method is taken as an alternative to the optimal solution based on the maximum principle. The corresponding suboptimal solutions are very robust concerning the inaccuracies of the system parameters and the initial conditions. The mechanical modelling takes into account the pendulum like motion of the load as well as the vibration of the crane structure.