A capacitive rotary encoder has a stator and a rotor as well as stator electrodes firmly arranged at the stator on an encoding path coaxial to the rotor axis, and coupling electrodes arranged at the rotor. The coupling electrodes are guided over the stator electrodes at a small axial distance from the encoding path by rotation of the rotor, wherein they each cover stator electrodes adjacent in the peripheral direction and connect the latter capacitively to each other. Interrogation electronics detects for each of the stator electrodes a capacitive coupling with an adjacent stator electrode caused by a coupling electrode of the rotor. This permits the reliable detection of the angular position of the rotor both statically and dynamically.