getting keys from keyserver whithout knowing the ID

[Marco Herrn]

Hi,

I'm sorry if this is an often asked and maybe stupid question, but I didn't
find an answer in any documentation.
My problem is, if I want to fetch a public key from the keysevers I have to
know the keyID. But what if don't know it? One thing is, maybe I want to
send an e-mail to someone I hadn't have any contact before. I only know the
e-mail adress. So I would search the keyservers for a key for that adress. I
certainly wouldn't know the ID already.
The same if I don't even know if the person I want to write to uses
PGP/GnuPG. I could find out by searching the keyservers.
And third, imagine I would know the keyID. I think it is much more easy to
enter the e-mail adress (which is more human-readable) than the ID.

So how can I get a key without knowing the ID? Or how can I find out the ID
using GnuPG? I'd think that this is a problem many new users have, isn't it?

It would be great if you can help me.

And again, sorry if that question is really silly.

Marco
-- 
Marco Herrn

herrn@gmx.net
www.herrn.ch.vu