c 300 u00b0 c 350 u00b0 c and 400 u00b0 c all values gn k which are less than or equal to 200 u00b0 c can hereby for example be allocated to category 200 u00b0 c alternatively all values gn k which are less than 250 u00b0 c can be allocated to category 200 u00b0 c in this case all values gn k which are greater than or equal to 250 u00b0 c and less than 300 u00b0 c are allocated to category 250 u00b0 c this can however be agreed upon as desired the resulting distributions are evaluated block 34 whereby also only certain categories may be examined for example only categories gt 350 u00b0 c may be examined during the evaluation a threshold 36 is imposed on the result of the evaluation in this case it is recognized that considerably more values are allocated to category 400 u00b0 c which results from the relative distribution function 30 than to category 400 u00b0 c which results from the dependent distribution function 32 since consequently high exhaust gas temperatures are expected in the foreseeable future the regeneration is initially suppressed and corresponding information is provided at an output 38 if there has not been a phase with high temperature for a long time but if this is normally the case the probability for one to occur soon increases consequently a limited delay of the soft thermo management occurs fig3 shows an additional design of the method with a relative distribution function 50 which determines a first distribution over a long time period.