The invention relates to an acoustic emission transducer and a coupling method. The acoustic emission transducer (1) forms an assembly unit and is intended specially for measuring high-frequency acoustic emissions (up to about 2 MHz). It consists of a piezoelectric measuring element (9), an acoustic transmission base (8) with a circumferential coupling diaphragm (7), and an encapsulant (10) which partially encloses the measuring element (9). A mounting screw (3) serves to fix the transducer to a measuring object. The coupling diaphragm (7) lies in a recess (14) of the housing (2), whose bottom surface (5) is at a distance from the measuring object (15) corresponding to the prestressing distance s when the diaphragm (7) is unstressed. The acoustic emission transducer (1) is coupled onto the measuring object (15) by tightening the screw (3) so that the bottom surface (5) is pressed onto the measuring object (15) and fixed to it, tensioning the diaphragm (7) and coupling the mounting base (8 ) to the surface of the measuring object (15). The invention makes possible miniaturization and more rational production of the transducer as well as improved high-frequency sound transmision.