The invention relates to mechanical, variable valve lift controllers, which, during the operation of the engine, permit a throttle-free load control, or a cylinder shutdown, by means of the rotation of control shafts with tappets or pushrods, for individual valves or valve groups, whereby the valve stroke length can be steplessly adjusted from a maximum stroke length to a continuous closure, a stepless phase shift in the valve operation may be easily achieved, which leads to the replacement of camshaft adjusters and the continuous opening of the valves can be set to permit an increase in the brake capacity of the engine. The tappets are themselves driven by pivoting or rotating levers and correspondingly operate the valves by engagement in further pivoting or rotating levers. The alternate activation by the valve lift controllers of several adjacent pivoting or rotating levers, which are driven by their own independent cams, permits the operation of single valves or valve groups by means of a common or individual pivoting or rotating lever, whereby, alongside a combustion driven operation, a generation of compressed air and a compressed air driven operation of the engine can be achieved.