Lubricating oil additive or biodiesel fuel additive containing block copolymers, obtainable by polymerizing a mixture of olefinically unsaturated monomers which consists of a) 0.5 to 20 wt% of one or more ethylenically unsaturated ester compounds of the formula in which R is hydrogen or methyl, R 1 is a linear or branched alkyl radical having 1 to 5 carbon atoms, R 2 and R 3 independently are hydrogen or a group with the formula -COOR', in which R' is hydrogen or an alkyl group having 1 to 5 carbon atoms, b) 10 to 98 wt% of one or more ethylenically unsaturated ester compounds of the formula in which R is methyl, R 4 is a linear or branched alkyl radical having 6 to 15 carbon atoms, R 5 and R 6 independently are hydrogen or a group with the formula -COOR", in which R" is hydrogen or an alkyl group having 6 to 15 carbon atoms, c) 0.5 to 60 wt% of one or more ethylenically unsaturated ester compounds of the formula in which R is hydrogen or methyl, R 7 is a linear or branched alkyl radical having 16 to 30 carbon atoms, R 8 and R 9 independently are hydrogen or a group with the formula -COOR'", in which R'" is hydrogen or an alkyl group having 16 to 30 carbon atoms, and d) 0 to 50 wt% of comonomer, comprising ethylenically unsaturated monomers which can be copolymerized with the ethylenically unsaturated ester compounds of the formulae, and/or and are selected from the group of hydroxyalkyl (meth)acrylates, aminoalkyl (meth)acrylates, aryl (meth)acrylates, methacrylates of ether alcohols, heterocyclic (meth)acrylates, vinyl esters, styrene, substituted styrenes with an alkyl substituent in the side chain, and heterocyclic vinyl compounds, based in each case on the total weight of the ethylenically unsaturated monomers, where the mixture of the ethylenically unsaturated monomers has been altered discontinuously during chain growth in such a way as to give block copolymers whose blocks contain at least 30 monomer units, and where the aforementioned monomers have been polymerized using initiators which have a transferable atomic group and in the presence of catalysts which comprise at least one transition metal or transition metal compound which is able, with the initiator and/or with the polymer chain containing a transferable atomic group, to form a redox cycle, and in the presence of ligands which are able to form a coordination compound with the metallic catalyst or catalysts. a) 0.5 to 20 wt% of one or more ethylenically unsaturated ester compounds of the formula in which R is hydrogen or methyl, R 1 is a linear or branched alkyl radical having 1 to 5 carbon atoms, R 2 and R 3 independently are hydrogen or a group with the formula -COOR', in which R' is hydrogen or an alkyl group having 1 to 5 carbon atoms, b) 10 to 98 wt% of one or more ethylenically unsaturated ester compounds of the formula in which R is methyl, R 4 is a linear or branched alkyl radical having 6 to 15 carbon atoms, R 5 and R 6 independently are hydrogen or a group with the formula -COOR", in which R" is hydrogen or an alkyl group having 6 to 15 carbon atoms, c) 0.5 to 60 wt% of one or more ethylenically unsaturated ester compounds of the formula in which R is hydrogen or methyl, R 7 is a linear or branched alkyl radical having 16 to 30 carbon atoms, R 8 and R 9 independently are hydrogen or a group with the formula -COOR'", in which R'" is hydrogen or an alkyl group having 16 to 30 carbon atoms, and d) 0 to 50 wt% of comonomer, comprising ethylenically unsaturated monomers which can be copolymerized with the ethylenically unsaturated ester compounds of the formulae, and/or and are selected from the group of hydroxyalkyl (meth)acrylates, aminoalkyl (meth)acrylates, aryl (meth)acrylates, methacrylates of ether alcohols, heterocyclic (meth)acrylates, vinyl esters, styrene, substituted styrenes with an alkyl substituent in the side chain, and heterocyclic vinyl compounds, based in each case on the total weight of the ethylenically unsaturated monomers,