Process for UV-initiated thermal crosslinking within a hotmelt process for the preparation of polyacrylate hotmelt adhesives, in which a polymer is produced from an acrylate-based comonomer mixture that includes monomers which carry at least one functional group capable of reacting with a photochemically generated base, with or without the addition of a catalyst, and then coating this polymer onto a backing, irradiating within the coating process or thereafter, and finally subjecting the polymer to thermal treatment, with crosslinking occurring between the polymer and the photochemically generated base. Structural crosslinking of the sheetlike pressure-sensitive adhesive can be produced if irradiation takes place through a mask.