A method for controlling an artificial knee joint comprising an upper part and a lower part pivotally connected to each other, a resistance unit arranged between the upper part and the lower part and having an adjusting device to adjust the damping resistance, a control unit, the adjustment taking place on the basis of sensor data from at least one sensor. During the swing phase at least one of the knee angle (KA), the knee angle velocity (KAV), the knee angle acceleration (KAA), the lower limb angle, the lower limb velocity, the lower limb acceleration, the ankle moment (AM) and the axial force (AF) is sensed, the curve of the parameter is determined and the damping resistance is changed when, after an extreme value of the parameter is reached, the monotonic behavior of the curve of the parameter changes within the swing phase.