Abstract: The relay contains an excitation coil, a U-shaped yoke with one of its legs serving as the core of the coil, and an armature to operate at least one switching contact of a contact carrier unit. This unit contains a supporting bridge which extends essentially perpendicularly to the axis of the coil and which carries the contact finger(s) of the switching contact(s). The contact carrier unit is fastened to the free leg of the yoke. One edge of the face end of the free yoke leg serves as knife-edge bearing for the armature. The armature is fastened to the free yoke leg by a holding element. In order to make the relay compact and easy to assemble, the armature is angularly formed, thus having a magnetically active leg and a free leg. The free leg which does interact with the core of the coil extends essentially parallel to the free yoke leg. The contact fingers are positioned essentially parallel to the axis of the coil. The supporting bridge is provided with a fastening piece.