A hedge trimmer having a rear handle, a tubular handle and a blade arrangement with at least one cutter bar disposed in a cutter bar plane. An internal combustion engine drives the cutter bars in a reciprocating manner, and has a combustion chamber and a crankshaft mounted in a crankcase so as to be rotatable about an axis of rotation. The combustion chamber faces the rear handle, and the crankcase faces the blade arrangement. The blade arrangement has a longitudinal central axis, and the hedge trimmer has a longitudinal plane that is disposed parallel to the axis of rotation of the crankshaft and transverse to the cutter bar plane. The longitudinal central axis of the blade arrangement lies in the longitudinal plane of the hedge trimmer.