sensors may be present and also additional sensors the actuators are for example the throttle valve 11 the gas inlet and gas exhaust valves 30 31 the injection valve 34 the spark plug 35 and the adjustment device 37 apart from the cylinder z 1 which is shown in detail there are generally further cylinders z 2 to z 4 present in an internal combustion engine associated with which are then corresponding intake pipes exhaust channels and actuators the control device incorporates a phase position unit in which the phase position of the camshaft 36 relative to the crankshaft 21 is determined for this purpose a program is stored in the control device and is executed during the operation of the internal combustion engine the program fig3 is started in a step s 1 in which any necessary variables are initialized step s 2 checks whether the crankshaft angle crk is equal to a first crankshaft angle crk 1 if not the program pauses in step s 3 for a predefined waiting time t_w before checking the condition in step s 2 again on the other hand if the condition in step s 2 is satisfied then step s 4 checks whether the crankshaft angle crk is less than a second crankshaft angle crk 2 if not the program pauses in step s 3 for the predefined waiting time t_w on the other hand if the conditions in steps s 2 and s 4 are satisfied then the crankshaft is within the range predefined by the first crankshaft angle crk 1 and the second crankshaft angle crk 2 which is preferably.