Frequency converter with reduced pre-charging time

A frequency converter, comprising:

• a rectifier on an input side, said rectifier comprising input side phases and half bridges, said half bridges including active switching elements to configured the rectifier as a recovery rectifier;
• a support capacitor arranged downstream of the rectifier and fed by the half bridges of the rectifier via the input side phases;
• an upstream circuit connecting the input side phases of the rectifier via phase capacitors to grid side phases of a multiphase supply grid, with each grid side phase being connected to one of the input side phases within the upstream circuit via a respective phase capacitor;
• and
• a control facility configured to control the active switching elements when a first charge state of the support capacitor is reached to apply input side phase voltages to the input side phases via the active switching elements, said input side phase voltages running in an opposite direction to grid side phase voltages applied to the grid side phases to which the input side phases are connected via the phase capacitors.