Abstract: A device for determining the pressure between a contact wire and a pantograph of an electrically-powered vehicle is provided with a measuring device for the static pressure that is determined from the distance between two elastically-connected components, the distance being a function of the static pressure, the device further having an acceleration sensor, which is coupled with the pantograph for determining the pantograph accelerations occurring in the direction of the pressure. The output signal of the acceleration sensor is linked with the output signal of the measuring device for calculating the pressure. The acceleration sensor is embodied to include a seismic mass (3) that is resiliently mounted to the pantograph (6) and whose respective position relative to the pantograph is optically detected, and a corresponding light signal is transmitted to an optoelectrical converter that is potential-isolated from the pantograph (6).