Warp knitting machine with guide bars adjusted according to a pattern by means of displacement stepping motors, which receive their displacement information in the form of a certain number of displacement pulses from a pattern memory of a control device.For determining and correcting the guide bar position of a warp knitting machine shut down in underlay position, the indicator of an electrical proximity switch is connected with each guide bar, whose sensor is mounted on a measurement slider shiftable in the displacement direction of the guide bar, said slider being shiftable by means of a measurement stepping motor over the displacement range of the indicator beginning from a start position, which corresponds to the zero-position of the guide bar. A pulse counter is provided for counting the steps of the measurement stepping motor during this shifting up to the point of coincidence of the indicator and sensor, whose counting result is compared by means of a comparator with the displacement pulse number defining the shifting for a given pattern, which is obtainable from the pattern memory. The difference determined by the comparator is fed to the associated displacement stepping motor as a correction pulse number.