Highlights from the COMPASS experiment at CERN -- Hadron spectroscopy and excitations

The COMPASS experiment at the CERN-SPS studies the spectrum and the structure of hadrons by scattering high energy hadrons and polarised muons off various fixed targets. Recent results for the hadron programme comprise highlights from different topics. A selective overview is given and, among others, the following results are discussed. The precise determination of the pion polarisability, a long standing puzzle that has been solved now, is presented as well as measurements of radiative widths. The observation of a new narrow axial-vector state, the $a_1(1420)$, as well as deeper insights into the exotic $1^{-+}$-wave, which is under study since decades by several experiments, are discussed and further, the search for the charmonium-like exotic $Z_c(3900)$ state in the COMPASS data is covered.