Abstract: A method for starting a grinding tube with an assigned drive device, wherein during the operation of the grinding tube a grinding mode and a charge release mode can be set such that a particularly reliable monitoring of the state of charge located in the grinding tube is ensured, where the grinding tube is rotated and, at a first rotational angle, a first actual torque is detected, a setpoint torque is calculated for a second, relatively large rotational angle based on the first actual torque, an actually occurring, second actual torque is detected when the second rotational angle is reached, an investigation is performed to determine the difference of the second actual torque from the setpoint torque, and the charge release mode of the grinding tube is set when the second actual torque is within the threshold range, otherwise the grinding tube is operated in the grinding mode.