A multiplicity of silicon wafers polished at least on their front sides are provided and successively coated individually in an epitaxy reactor by a procedure whereby one of the wafers is placed on a susceptor in the epitaxy reactor, is pretreated under a hydrogen atmosphere at a first hydrogen flow rate, and with addition of an etching medium to the hydrogen atmosphere at a reduced hydrogen flow rate in a second step, is subsequently coated epitaxially on its polished front side, and removed from the reactor. An etching treatment of the susceptor follows a specific number of epitaxial coatings. Silicon wafers produced thereby have a global flatness value GBIR of 0.07-0.3 μm relative to an edge exclusion of 2 mm.