drive the increase in the recorded force profile or current profile corresponds to a spring stiffness the spring stiffness is dependent here on the position of the upper edge 38 in the elastic receptacle 36 the deeper the extent to which the upper edge 38 advances into the recess 35 the greater the increase in the spring stiffness if the spring stiffness exceeds a threshold value the drive of the window lifter 34 is stopped locking and stressing of the window lifter 34 can be avoided by prompt stopping 45 of the drive fig3 shows a flowchart of the method according to the invention wherein both the stopping position in the soft stop region is detected and a stopping position is re learnt in the original state 1 the control device does not have a stored value of the stopping position of the window 33 of the window lifter 34 which is illustrated in fig1 but only has the threshold values for force and spring stiffness which are necessary for the method according to the invention but are vehicle specific when the window lifter 34 is activated the value zero is assigned to a counter in the state 2 in the control device when the window lifter 34 is moved for the first time the stopping positions for a closed window or opened window of the window lifter 34 are not known the stopping positions are determined for example by moving the window 33 into the elastic receptacle 36 shown.