Vertical direction sensor

The invention relates to a vertical direction sensor having a plate-shaped gravity-type rotary pendulum (6) of little eccentricity, which is located inside a rotationally symmetric container (4). To be able to produce this vertical direction sensor inexpensively and to be able to measure the deviation from the real vertical within a satisfactory range of interfering frequencies, the pendulum (6), whilst having slightly smaller dimensions, has the shape of the cross-sectional area, parallel to the axis of rotation, of the container (4), as a result of which the edge of the pendulum plate (6) passes contactlessly at a small distance over the inner container surface, like a rotational slider, during its oscillation.