A free piston apparatus includes a piston receptacle in which a piston device having a piston is linearly reciprocable. The piston receptacle includes or forms a combustion chamber delimited by a wall arrangement forming a first opening and a second opening. The openings include an inlet opening for the supply of fresh gas and an outlet opening for the removal of exhaust gas for a uniflow scavenging of the combustion chamber. Movement of the piston device is controllable by a control device. The bottom dead center of the piston can be adjustable such that when the piston adopts the bottom dead center, the first opening is partially unblocked and partially blocked for adjusting a free cross sectional area of the first opening. An opening duration can also be adjustable. A method for operating a free piston apparatus includes controlling movement of a piston device with a control device.