Method for milling a series of teeth of a toothed gear element with teeth in a straight line with a milling cutter rotatable about a milling cutter axis and having at its periphery interchangeable cutting inserts arranged such that, when the milling cutter is brought to the toothed gear element, they reach into gaps between adjacent teeth or generate these gaps, and a corresponding milling cutter. Cutting edges of mounted cutting inserts extend radially and perpendicularly relative to the milling cutter axis. During milling of the tooth profile, the milling cutter axis is aligned in a plane perpendicular to the longitudinal extent of the tooth back and, during entering of the cutting inserts, rotated about the milling cutter axis, into the surface or gaps between the teeth, and pivoted in this plane over an angular range covering all normals to the profile surface of the tooth to be produced.