1. An electro-optical distance measuring device for contactless distance measurement, comprising: a laser distance measuring module that has a laser source for emitting an optical measuring light beam in the direction of an object; a receiver for detecting reflected components of the optical measuring light beam; and an evaluation and control unit for determining a distance on the basis of the received components of the optical measuring light beam, wherein: criteria are defined and stored which characterize a stipulated distance measurement triggering gesture made by a user to cross the measuring light beam in an encoded fashion with the aid of a test body; and the evaluation and control unit is designed to execute a gesture measurement triggering mode in which the detection of reflected components of the optical measuring light beam is performed automatically and continuously at a defined minimum rate by the receiver; and the evaluation and control unit automatically: evaluates the continuously detected reflected components of the optical measuring light beam with regards to parameters that are dependent on a gesture crossing the measuring light beam in an encoded fashion with the aid of the test body; uses the parameters to check whether these correspond to the defined criteria and, in the event of correspondence with the criteria, the gesture made by the user is identified as the distance measurement triggering gesture; and triggers a distance measurement relating to the object in response to an identification of the distance measurement triggering gesture.