A control system controls a plurality of controllable units with a central control device and further has a plurality of control modules, each of which is assigned to one of the units to be controlled. The central control device is set up to exchange digital data with each control module. The control modules form a connection network, wherein each control module is connected to at least one other control module via a communication line so that data exchange between them is possible. One of the control modules is directly connected to the central control device as the master node of the connection network, and the control modules are set up to form a communication network within the connection network, so that the data exchange between the central control device and each control module can be respectively carried out via an assigned communication path within the communication network.