In my AE usage, the two are in free variation--sometimes I say knelt and sometimes kneeled. The choice of the spelling reflects the way someone pronounces the word. Merriam Webster shows both forms. There is absolutely no difference in meaning, so the two words should not be translated differently into German.

Just pick whichever sounds good to you, or do like a lot of people do and randomly use both forms. Of course, if you are writing, I would be consistent within any given paper, essay, etc.

yeah, thanks :-). sounds about right. it was for writing so yeah, I'll try to be consistent.

I would have said the one is BE (knelt) and the other is AE (kneeled) and this is confirmed by the Oxford Dictionary (and I quote):
kneel
• verb (past and past part. knelt or chiefly N. Amer. also kneeled) fall or rest on a knee or the knees.

@Confused GB - Personally, I don't think this is an AE/BE difference, since I would automatically say: knelt in prayer/while gardening - in fact, I can't think of one example where I'd use "kneeled."

hmmm, so are we back to square one? I think back in school, the "official" version was knelt. but in the example I needed, 'kneeled' sounded better, then I remembered that I had actually learned 'knelt' and went to LEO to check it, finding both versions there...

interestingly, right now, my computer is underlining the word 'kneeled' in this post, but not 'knelt'. could it be one of those things that are "correct" just because many people use them, whereas grammatically, they would actually have to be counted as wrong?......

Now you got it.

"to kneel" is an irregular verb. And the correct form is knelt. But as with many irregulars some "regular" form built with -ed comes up and sneaks into common knowledge. Here it kneeled that snuck up on us.

As an AE speaker, I use both 'kneeled' and 'knelt'interchangeably, but I probably use 'kneeled' more often.

@Old fashioned
Knelt is one correct pp of kneel. Kneeled is no less correct.

@Old fashioned

It's not about more or less correct! Either form can be used just as KAB points out.