1. A method for road sign recognition, in which images of a region surrounding the vehicle are acquired by means of a camera, the image data of the camera are analyzed, wherein at least one image region ( 10 ) that contains a potential road sign ( 1 ) is determined, the image region ( 10 ) that contains the potential road sign ( 1 ) is submitted to a first classification unit that identifies the potential road sign ( 1 ), on the basis of at least one class-specific feature, as a road sign ( 1 ) belonging to this particular class, characterized in that the brightness of the or the color intensity of the surface of the road sign ( 1 ) is analyzed along radially extending scanning beams ( 5 ) starting from a defined starting point within the surface of the road sign ( 1 ), potential contour points ( 6 ) of an information-bearing part ( 3 ) of the road sign ( 1 ) are determined from the results of brightness or color intensity analysis, a region of the surface of the road sign ( 1 ) is extracted as an information-bearing part ( 3 ) of the road sign that includes all determined potential contour points ( 6 ), and the extracted region is submitted to a second classification unit for semantic interpretation.