In the case of a vehicle seat (1), in particular a motor vehicle seat, having at least one four-bar linkage (4), which is defined by four mechanism links, for setting the seat height, and a crash blocking unit (21) which, in the event of a crash, locks at least two of the mechanism links to one another by means of two locking members (23, 25), the crash blocking unit (21) has a passive or switchable element (51) which is separately activated prior to or at the beginning of the crash.