The invention relates to a Stirling engine encompassing two or more sub-systems comprising a working gas and connected to each other according to the invention such that the first sub-system is connected via a counter-current heat exchanger to the last sub-system such that, during operation, an amount of heat necessary for the isochoric heating thereof is transmitted from the hot working gas of the last sub-system via a counter-current heat exchanger into the cold working gas of the first sub-system, whereby the working gas of the last sub-system is isochorically cooled down, and that all remaining sub-systems are connected such to the respectively upstream sub-system via bypass lines closeable by valves that they are thereby isochorically heated during operation, that the hot working gas of the respectively upstream sub-system is pushed into said sub-systems via the opened bypass lines, and at the same time the cold working gas of said sub-systems is pushed into the respectively upstream sub-system in the same quantity and equally large volume, whereby the respectively upstream sub-system is isochorically cooled down.