Lifting device and method for operating a lifting device

A lifting mechanism for lifting and lowering a load, the lifting mechanism comprising:

• a motor which is designed as a three-phase asynchronous motor and via which the lifting mechanism can be driven in order to lift and lower the load, and comprising a brake resistor via which power resulting from regenerative operation of the motor taking place during lowering of the load at a lowering speed at or below a speed threshold value can be converted into heat, wherein the brake resistor is designed for a nominal power that is less than the power resulting with a nominal load and nominal lowering speed;
• and
• a controller configured to activate the motor and set the threshold value taking into consideration at least one load capacity characteristic value of the brake resistor for the lowering speed such that during lowering of the load at the lowering speed, which corresponds to the threshold value, the resulting power is limited to the at least one load capacity characteristic value, and wherein the threshold value for the lowering speed is maximized via the controller such that the brake resistor can be operated at a maximum power that is within the scope of the at least one load capacity characteristic value.