spacing once this microscopic stroke which is used merely to blow out any accumulations of fuel upstream of the valve is ended the additional magnet is deprived of current again and the valve is kept in the closing position the arrangement of the additional magnets described in conjunction with fig1 can perform still another task because of various factors especially the phenomenon of so called sticking of an armature on a holding magnet it can happen that upon a shutoff of the holding current the armature will separate from the pole face of the holding magnet with a time lag these time lags must therefore be taken into account in determining the shutoff time in order to bring about an accurately timed onset of motion of the armature and thus accurate times for opening or closing of the gas exchange valve the influence of the 34 sticking 34 can now be counteracted by providing that the existing additional magnet which at the termination of armature motion acts as a damping or braking magnet is used as an accelerating magnet at the onset of armature motion given a suitable current supply to initiate the process of expulsion of the armature from the holding electromagnet the holding current through the electromagnet is turned off and depending on the dimensioning either just beforehand just after or at the same time the additional magnet is supplied with current or acted upon by an increased current as a result in addition to the action of the restoring spring an.