A method for visualizing the surroundings of a vehicle, including the following steps: determining and storing an instantaneous distance between the vehicle and present obstacles in the surroundings of the vehicle with the aid of at least one sensor; determining and storing a present position of the vehicle; calculating an at least two-dimensional model of the surroundings from the stored data; calculating a virtual view of the model of the surroundings from a selected virtual observer position; recording a video depiction of at least a portion of the surroundings with the aid of at least one video camera and integrating the video depiction into the virtual view; and outputting the virtual view together with the integrated video depiction to a driver of the vehicle.