The invention relates to a method for controlling and monitoring a plurality of battery cells (2) in a battery pack (5), wherein: by means of at least one recording unit (20), a dataset of state variables from each battery cell (2) is recorded and transferred to a selection unit (32); by means of the selection unit (32), individual state variables from the plurality of state variable datasets are selected, which form a virtual dataset of state variables; by means of a simulation unit (34), a model of a virtual cell (8) is created from the selected state variables; and by means of a data-processing unit (36), a limit value for a charging current (I) for charging the battery cells (2) in the battery pack (5) is calculated from the selected state variables of the virtual cell (8).