a motor vehicle door lock or the like has a housing or a lock bearing plate , a rotary latch with a jaw for a locking wedge or lock bolt and a pawl for locking the rotary latch in a locking position which corresponds to the closed motor vehicle door . several complementary measures are proposed which can be applied together or separately to optimise the locking elements — rotary latch and pawl . a differentiated positioning of the rotary latch and pawl is particularly significant . the material , shape and / or mounting of the swivelling axis of the rotary latch or of the swivelling axis of the pawl are designed for normal operation conditions . however , in the event of tearing up forces which are considerably higher than the normal operation conditions , the rotary latch or pawl can be displaced in such a way that a substantial proportion of the tearing up forces can be absorbed by the supporting area of a recess which contains the rotary latch or of a recess which contains the pawl .