The invention describes a device for separating dust and dirt out of flowing media. A curved flow path (1) is imposed on the flow (21), and heavy foreign bodies are separated out of the main flow by centrifugal force. The partial stream required to carry away the foreign bodies is aftertreated in a filter (11) and returned in purified form. Unlike with conventional filters, which have to process the entire flow of media, pressure losses during the separation of dust are minimized, and on the other hand no medium is lost for removing the dust load.