A brake cylinder for pneumatically actuated vehicle brakes includes a parking brake spring-loaded brake section and a service brake section combined to form a structural unit in a housing. The housing is divided into two chambers by a piston. A cylinder spring of the spring-loaded brake section acts on another spring-loaded piston in the chamber, which can be blocked in relation to the first piston by a pneumatically actuated locking mechanism, and can be released from the first piston by the releasing action of the blocking mechanism. Following the release, the cylinder spring acts between the two pistons and moves the two pistons in relation to each other during a parking brake process. The pneumatically actuatable blocking mechanism acts only in an expansion direction of the spring.