Box- and peanut-shaped bulges. I.

There is no substantial difference between the shape of bulges in the optical and in the NIR. Our analysis reveals that 45% of all bulges are box- and peanut-shaped (b/p).

The frequency of b/p bulges for all morphological types from S0 to Sd is >40%. In particular, this is for the first time that such a large frequency of b/p bulges is reported for galaxies as late as Sd. The fraction of the observed b/p bulges is large enough to explain the origin of b/p bulges by a barred potential (Luetticke et al., 2000, A&A, accepted).