Inorganic functional materials are widely applied due to their electrical, optical, magnetic and mechanical properties. Accordingly, these materials exhibit an enormous impact on key technologies relevant for future fields such as energy generation and storage as well as information and medical technology. The manufacturing of such materials is usually performed at elevated temperature and pressure combined with enormous experimental effort and extensive equipment. In contrast, biomineralization processes have been evolutionarily optimized over millions of years and involve biopolymeric templates in an aqueous environment. The resulting combination of inorganic and bioorganic components yields biominerals with unique multifunctional features. The reader of this series will gain a comprehensive overview about the general ideas and principles of biopolymeric templating.