A charging apparatus for charging electrical energy stores for motor vehicles, having a conversion device for converting a power supplied from a medium-voltage grid to a power suitable for the charging process of the energy store. Here, the conversion device includes at least one phase unit connected to at least one phase of the medium-voltage grid, said phase unit having at least two strands, namely at least one strand for a positive component of the phase and at least one strand for a negative component of the phase. At least one module, having at least one input unit and at least one inverter unit and at least one transformer unit and at least one rectifier unit associated with the transformer unit and at least one output unit, is associated in each case with the strands.