A braking system for a rail vehicle includes a target value generator for the target value of the overall braking power, a controller for determining at least one manipulated variable value on the basis of the target value and at least one actuator which transmits the manipulated variable value to the at least one braking device. The system at least approximately determines acceleration components of the rail vehicle and determines the actual value of the total braking power from the acceleration components while taking the vehicle speed and the vehicle mass into consideration. The controller is designed to control the manipulated variable value such as to reduce the control deviation between the target value and the determined actual value.