In a process for preparing acrolein, acrylic acid or a mixture thereof from propane, propane is partially dehydrogenated to propylene in a first stage, the product gas mixture resulting therefrom is, after separating off hydrogen and water vapor, used as feed to an oxidation reactor, the propylene formed in the dehydrogenation is partially oxidized in the oxidation reactor using molecular oxygen in the presence of non-dehydrogenated propane as inert diluent gas to give acrolein, acrylic acid or a mixture thereof and the propane present in the product gas mixture of the partial oxidation is subsequently recirculated to the dehydrogenation stage A.