A device for the active damping of swivel joint couplings, particularly for semi-trailers, articulated buses, and rail vehicles. The device serves to avoid or reduce dynamic driving instabilities known as yaw, sliding, rocking, oversteering, and jack-knife effects in curves, in lane changes, for example in construction sites, in the case of uneven road contact, and in the case of uneven load distribution, for example in semi-trailers. The damping device includes primarily a rotational assembly (5, 12) and a friction brake (9) which is applied front inside to outside within the rotation assembly. The friction brake minimizes or avoids rotational movements of the vehicle about the vertical axis (10) of the vehicle. The damping moment created by the brake (9) is electronically controlled according to the present driving condition.