i haven´t some big experiences with the topic JPA and Hibernate. For me it is not clear, when it is necessary to write the JPA annotation at the member variable of my entity class ans when i can use the get methods for my annotations. Is it right, that annotations should not being set at the set method of an entity?. Here is a small example: 

```
public class MessageEntity implements Persistable{

    @ManyToOne
    StatusEntity state;

    @Column(nullable = false)
    private Boolean freitext = false;

    private Collection<Variables> variables;

    @OneToMany(cascade = { CascadeType.MERGE, CascadeType.PERSIST }, targetEntity = Variables.class)
    public Collection<Variables> getVariables() {
       return this.variables;
    }
}

```

Also it is not clear for me, when i must use the attribute targetEntity. Can somebody explain that for me?

Maik