A detecting device detects at least one battery characteristic of at least one battery cell of a battery plane of a battery stack. A carrier has at least one electrical lead element and at least one contact element having a contact section for contacting a mating contact section of the at least one battery cell. The contact element has a sensor section for detecting the at least one battery characteristic of the battery cell. The sensor section is connected by data-communicating to the at least one line element for forwarding the at least one detected battery characteristic. Furthermore, the invention relates to a battery stack having at least one battery plane with at least one battery cell and a detection device.