The invention relates to a method for the catalytic gas phase oxidation of propene into acrylic acid in which the initial mixture of reaction gas, with an increased propene charge, is oxidized on a first fixed-bed catalyst during a first reaction step, and the mixture of product gas which contains acrolein and which is of the first reaction step is, under an increased acrolein charge, subsequently oxidized on a second fixed-bed catalyst during a second reaction step, whereby the catalyst shaped bodies comprise an annular geometry in both reaction steps.