Abstract: This invention relates to a degassing vessel for the vacuum treatment of liquid steel, consisting of a lower, middle and upper part. To protect the heater rod, which in the degassing vessel is oriented at a right angle to the center axis, the invention essentially proposes that the middle part has a cylindrical shape with the same radius as the lower part, that in the vicinity of the connection to the upper part there is a flat gas guide surface parallel to the heater rod and at an angle to the cylindrical jacket, and that finally the jacket of the upper part connected to the middle part has the shape of a half-tube, which is closed by a flat surface oriented parallel to the center axis.