A sheet separation device for separating the first sheet in a sheet stack has a suction element (3) with suction openings (3a) assigned to the front sheet region. The suction element (3) is provided with a suction surface which is designed so as to be convex in the sheet conveying direction and has a flat surface "D" which is assigned to the front edge region of a sheet to be separated and is tangential to the convex suction surface R1. The flat surface "D" projects with a larger surface proportion "C" into the region of the suction openings (3a) and connects a smaller radius R1 to a larger radius R2 of the suction surface of the suction element (3). <IMAGE>
