Non equilibrium dynamics of lipid bilayers : time resolved x ray scattering at in house and synchrotron sources The main goal of this thesis was to extend and apply time resolved x ray scattering experiments at in house synchrotron and free electron laser sources to soft matter sample systems in particular aligned lipid multilayers on solid support. A special emphasis was placed on a characterization of the non equilibrium fast time response of the multilamellar stack to shortly pulsed optical excitation as well as the acousto electric field accompanying a surface acoustic wave (SAW). In addition to fundamental questions associated with non equilibrium dynamics of soft matter films such as driven membrane undulations this thesis addresses technological challenges of time resolved x ray diffraction in particular concerning the timing scheme that has been implemented at the synchrotron storage ring Petra III DESY Hamburg. Importantly a conceptually new pulse resolved x ray detection scheme well exceeding the performance of present detector concepts has been developed and is described in detail.