The compressed gas-blast circuit breaker includes two moving contact members (1, 2) which are guided to move counter to one another along an axis (3) in a chamber which is filled with insulating gas. These contact members each have an arcing contact (8, 9) and a main current contact (6, 7). An insulating nozzle (10) mounted on a contact member (1) is moved directly by a drive, and compressed gas is passed, during disconnection, through the constriction (11) in the insulating nozzle (10) into an exhaust space (14) from a pressure space (12), which is independent of the switching travel, and/or from a compression space (19), which is operated by the contact members. Drive force is passed to a contact member (2), which absorbs force, from the directly-driven contact member (1), through an insulating part and a speed converter. During disconnection, if the functionally essential parts of the force-absorbing contact member (2), such as the arcing contact (9), the main current contact (7) and the shields, are suitably driven, it forms an insulating path, which can be highly stressed dielectrically, in a short time while optimally using a comparatively small drive force.