Microcapsules play an important role in pharmacy, cosmetics, food and technical industry. On grounds of their simple structure and viscoelastic properties these particles are often used as artificial model systems for biological cells. The investigation of bursting processes, capsule deformation and orientation in linear shear flow is, therefore, of great interest for technical applications and basic scientific research. In a series of experiments we investigated the rheological properties of polysiloxane microcapsules in an optical flow cell (rheoscope). In additional experiments we measured the regime of linear viscoelastic response and the shear rheological properties of the flat membranes in an interfacial rheometer. In spinning drop experiments, we determined the surface Young moduli and bursting process of the artificial particles. Measurements of the bending rigidity of the membranes were obtained from pendant-drop-experiments. The combination of these four experiments allowed evaluating the mechanical properties and the surface Poisson ratios of the capsule membranes. In experiments of simple shear flow we noticed that the capsule deformation was influenced by many parameters such as the viscosity ratio between the inner and outer phase, the water concentration of the oil phase, the polymerization time and the membrane bending rigidity. Besides these phenomena we observed a large number of different rheological processes like shear induced membrane wrinkling, tumbling, swinging and other dynamic motions. In separate experiments we investigated the flow induced bursting process of the viscoelastic capsules. It turned out that even most of the non-linear experimental results were in fairly good agreement with advanced theoretical approaches and recent simulations.