A belt retractor for the seat belt of a motor vehicle with a belt shaft (10) and with a profile head which is coupled to the latter and is lockable in a manner fixed on the housing, wherein a force-limiting device consisting of at least two force-limiting elements (11, 12) is arranged between profile head and belt shaft (10), and one force-limiting element (11) is connected to the profile head and a second force-limiting element (12) is connected to the belt shaft (10), and the free ends (15, 16) of the force-limiting elements (11, 12) are coupled to each other by means of a connecting tube (13) which is couplable to the belt shaft (10) via a coupling element (18), wherein, furthermore, the coupling element (18) is designed as a hook-shaped spring element with a locking hook (19) which slides over the outer circumference of the connecting tube (13) when the belt shaft (10) rotates and which engages in a locking groove (20) formed on the circumference of the connecting tube (13) and thereby couples the connecting tube (13) to the belt shaft (10) is characterized in that the coupling element (18), during the initial rotation thereof in relation to the connecting tube (13), is supported on the surface of the connecting tube (13) by means of a bridging device and, as a result, the locking hook (19), when crossing the locking groove (20) of the connecting tube (13), is kept out of engagement with the locking groove (20), and in that, when a preset angle of rotation of the belt shaft (10) is reached, the bridging device releases the coupling element (18) in order for the locking hook (19) thereof to latch into the locking groove (20) of the connecting tube (13).