The invention relates to a diesel-electric drive system with a generator (4) that is mechanically connected to a diesel motor (2) on the rotor side and that is linked on the stator side to a voltage source inverter (34) with a self-commuting pulse power converter on the generator and load side as well as to a brake resistor. According to the invention, the generator (4) is a generator (36) with two multiple-phase coil systems (42, 44), each of which is electroconductively linked to a self-commuting pulse power converter (38, 40) on the generator side, where the second self-commuting pulse power converter (40) on the generator side is switched electrically parallel to the voltage source circuit (18) of the voltage source inverter (34) on the generator side.; At least one input phase (R1, S1, T1) of the first self-commuting pulse power converter (38) on the generator side is electroconductively linked via a brake resistor (54) to a corresponding input phase (R2, S2, T3) of the second self-commuting pulse power converter (40) on the generator side. This creates a diesel-electric drive system with a voltage source inverter (34), the power semiconductor input of which is halved, thereby likewise reducing the cost thereof.