Distance measurement apparatus for measuring the time of flight of electromagnetic signals, having at least: • a transmitter for transmitting coded transmission signals according to a pattern specified by a coder, which continues to repeat temporally in the same order, • a receiver for detecting the signals reflected by at least one object as receive signals, • a counter unit having □ a time counter for writing time counter values, which are generated in each case with the transmission of the transmission signals and the receipt of the receive signals, into at least one register, whereby the time counter captures the code of the current transmission signal and counts the number of complete transmission pulse periods, which have elapsed between transmission and receiving a pulse with the same coding, and • a control and evaluation unit for calculating the time of flight on the basis of decoding the receive signals and reading the register of the counter unit, whereby the control and evaluation unit is configured to □ directly identify the received signals after the decoding as the reflections of the transmitted signals and thus directly associate with the corresponding transmission signal, and □ directly calculate the distance travelled by the transmitted signals, which are recognized as returning signals and identified by way of decoding, on the basis of the time counter values by calculating the distance travelled on the basis of the number of complete periods of the transmission signal, which have elapsed between transmission and receiving a pulse with the same coding, and the temporal position of the receive signal within a recording period, whereby the beginning of the recording period is triggered with a generating of a signal coding counter value and whereby simultaneously with each signal emission an associated signal coding counter value is generated. • a transmitter for transmitting coded transmission signals according to a pattern specified by a coder, which continues to repeat temporally in the same order, • a receiver for detecting the signals reflected by at least one object as receive signals, • a counter unit having □ a time counter for writing time counter values, which are generated in each case with the transmission of the transmission signals and the receipt of the receive signals, into at least one register, whereby the time counter captures the code of the current transmission signal and counts the number of complete transmission pulse periods, which have elapsed between transmission and receiving a pulse with the same coding, and • a control and evaluation unit for calculating the time of flight on the basis of decoding the receive signals and reading the register of the counter unit, whereby the control and evaluation unit is configured to □ directly identify the received signals after the decoding as the reflections of the transmitted signals and thus directly associate with the corresponding transmission signal, and □ directly calculate the distance travelled by the transmitted signals, which are recognized as returning signals and identified by way of decoding, on the basis of the time counter values by calculating the distance travelled on the basis of the number of complete periods of the transmission signal, which have elapsed between transmission and receiving a pulse with the same coding, and the temporal position of the receive signal within a recording period, whereby the beginning of the recording period is triggered with a generating of a signal coding counter value and whereby simultaneously with each signal emission an associated signal coding counter value is generated.