The present invention comprises the coating and modification of textile materials in order to provide them with water-repellent properties. The object of the invention was to hydrophobize textiles loaded with metal oxide, wherein the hydrophobing agent presented here is non-toxic and environmentally friendly, adhering to the metal oxide surface considerably more stably and without the use of additional dispersants and binders, which also takes environmental aspects into account. The object is achieved by the use according to the invention of metal oxide particles and/or metal hydroxide particles of group IVB, IIB or IIIA or mixtures thereof, wherein said particles are present in a size range of 110 nm-10 μm, for the coating of textile materials and their treatment after application to the textile with phosphoric or phosphonic acid ester derivatives of the general form OP(OH)2OR or OP(OH)2R, wherein R is a hydrophobic residue in the form of aliphatic, branched or unbranched, alicyclic or aromatic hydrocarbon groups having 5-40 carbon atoms.