that it tears open in the event of an accident through inflation of the airbag jacket 12 by means of the gas tube 18 in order to enable a free unfolding of the airbag jacket 12 0068 fig2 shows a plan view of a portion of the folding apparatus in accordance with the invention without the upper plate 27 prior to the forming of the folding pocket the material layer 14 which later forms the folding pocket is spread out on the lower plate 28 whereas the airbag jacket 12 through which the gas tube 18 passes lies on the material layer 14 in the spread out state clamping devices 32 for fixing the gas tube 18 are arranged laterally to the plate 28 furthermore the holding pins 36 which serve for fixing the material layer 14 are illustrated the fixing means 32 and 36 for the gas tube 18 or the folding pocket 14 respectively can in principle be designed in any desired manner in fig2 only a partial section of the gas tube 18 of the airbag jacket 12 and of the material layer 14 which later forms the folding pocket is in each case illustrated as fig3 shows the folding apparatus in accordance with the invention is subdivided into a plurality of sections 34 which comprise four plate arrangements 27 28 in the illustrated exemplary embodiment the plate arrangements 27 28 are arranged adjacently to one another in accordance with the curvature of the gas tube 18 the gas tube 18 is connected with one end to a gas generator 38 which is also designated as an inflator the material layer 14 which is not illustrated in fig3 can extend over the full length of the airbag jacket 12 or comprise a plurality of sections.