BERLIN (AFP) - Hertha Berlin players became the latest prominent sportsmen to follow the lead of NFL star Colin Kaepernick and "take a knee" in an act of political protest.

The entire Hertha team knelt on the pitch ahead of their Bundesliga game with Schalke on Saturday, with team manager Michael Preetz and coach Pal Dardai joining them from the substitutes' bench.

Kneeling has come to symbolise protest against the politics of Donald Trump since the US president's public dispute with Kaepernick and other prominent figures in American sport.

The club posted a picture of the kneeling players on its Twitter account, alongside the words: "Hertha stands for diversity, tolerance and responsibility. For a Berlin which remains open to the world!"

"We are living in the 21st century, not the 18th century, but there are some people who haven't developed their ideologies accordingly," Hertha player Sebastian Langkamp told Sky Sports.

"If we can give them a bit of help in doing so, then that's good."