Abstract: Fast and highly sensitive monitoring of electrical resistance-type heating elements of seat heaters in automotive vehicles is achieved by short-time breaking of the power supply to the electrical resistance-type heating element and coupling the electrical resistance-type heating element during this interruption to an electrical measuring section for applying to the electrical resistance-type heating element a measuring current which is significantly lower than the heating current. A controlling and monitoring circuit operating in this way permits testing of the electrical resistance-type heating element for a plurality of types of faults within a wide range of operating conditions.