This monograph represents the first two parts of the author's research on the generalization of class field theory for the noncommutative case. Part I concentrates on the construction of all the irreducible representations of a multiplicative group B* of a quaternion algebra B over a local field k with residue field of characteristic 2. These results are of considerable significance in the light of the connections found by Jacquet-Langlands between representations of GL2 (k) and B* and although they concern GL2 they also provide a model for GLn. Part II deals with n 2 unifying results...