A surge protection device having a housing, two connections for connection to a current path to be protected, and at least a first discharge conductor in the housing. In a normal state of the device, the first connection is electrically conductively connected to the first connection region of the discharge conductor, and the second connection is connected to the second connection region by at least one component. A metal safety element, which has two contact regions and a connecting region which connects the contact regions to one another, is arranged within the housing. The first contact region is electrically conductively connected to the second connection region and the second contact region is electrically conductively connected to the component in the normal state. The connecting region is a fuse by which brief pulse currents can be transmitted by the connecting region, whereas mains-frequency short-circuit currents overload the connecting region destroying it.