A shifting apparatus for a multistage transmission, especially for a motor vehicle, whereby in the transmission at least two non-successively following ratio stages are assigned to a shifting packet, whereby a gear shift lever (4) is provided for the actuation of the shifting packet and that a shifting pattern (6) is provided for the gear shift lever (4), with which, essentially, the shifting positions of each two subsequently following gears lie in paths (5) opposite to one another, and that the. gears which are available with a shifting path (5) are assigned to different shifting packets.