Multi-cylinder internal combustion engine and method for operating a multi-cylinder internal combustion engine of said type

An internal combustion engine comprising:

• at least one cylinder head;
• four cylinders in an in-line arrangement along a longitudinal axis of the at least one cylinder head;
• and
• a crankshaft which has, for each of the four cylinders, a crankshaft throw corresponding to the cylinder, wherein the crankshaft throws are arranged spaced apart from one another along a longitudinal axis of the crankshaft;
• each of the cylinders having at least one outlet opening for discharging exhaust gases out of the cylinder via an exhaust-gas discharge system, for which purpose each outlet opening is adjoined by an exhaust line;
• the four cylinders being configured in two cylinder groups, wherein in each case one outer cylinder and an adjacent inner cylinder form the cylinder group;
• and the exhaust lines of the four cylinders merging to form an overall exhaust line, such that an exhaust manifold is formed, in stages, the exhaust lines of each of the two cylinder groups merging, to form two component exhaust lines before the two component exhaust lines of the two cylinder groups merge to form an overall exhaust line, the two crankshaft throws of the two cylinders of each of the cylinder groups having no offset in a circumferential direction about the longitudinal axis of the crankshaft, such that the two cylinders of the cylinder group are mechanically synchronous cylinders, and the crankshaft throws of a first of the two cylinder groups are arranged so as to be offset by 180° in the circumferential direction on the crankshaft in relation to the crankshaft throws of a second of the two cylinder groups.