Abstract: Various embodiments of the teachings herein include a sensor facility for determining a switching state of an electromechanical switching element. The sensor facility may include: connection elements for electrically contacting respective connection contacts of the switching element; a coupling capacitor having two capacitor connections, wherein the first is coupled to a first connection element; a voltage generator providing a temporally variable electrical voltage, coupled to the second capacitor connection; a first overvoltage protection circuit coupled to a second connection element and blocking an electrical voltage greater than a maximum value of the temporally variable electrical voltage of the voltage generator; and a detector circuit coupled to the first overvoltage protection circuit and detecting electrical voltage to determine the switching state of the electromechanical switching element by evaluating the detected electrical voltage.