A method for operating a vehicle braking system for motor vehicles including a hybrid or electric drive and hydraulically actutable wheel brakes on the front axle, wherein the wheels associated with the rear axle are driven at least partially by an electric motor that can be operated as a generator to recover braking energy and, in generator mode, exerts a braking force on the vehicle wheel associated with the respective axle, thereby generating a drag torque including the braking torque and the regeneration torque of the electric drive, the drag torque being separately regulatable on the front and rear axles. To prevent overbraking of the rear axle and a loss of driving stability of the vehicle, a regeneration torque acting on the rear axle is controlled or regulated such that the drag torque acting on the rear axle does not exceed a maximum drag torque value associated with that axle.