The invention is directed to a contact arrangement in a compressed-gas circuit breaker such as a blast-piston breaker. The contact arrangement includes two base contacts and a bridging contact member. One of the base contacts is movable as a function of the current to be interrupted and the motion is controlled by two electrodynamic coil systems. One coil system causes a shortening of the gap and the other coil system causes a reverse motion shortly before the zero crossing to establish the quenching distance.