The Amputierten-Initiative e.V. [Amputees' initiative] was founded in Berlin as a self-help group of amputee patients in 1991. Since then, its aim has been to prevent amputations by education, to give patients sociomedical advice before and after inevitable amputations and to refer them to problem-oriented angiologists, vascular surgeons, pain therapists, orthopaedists, orthopaedic technologists, and rehabilitation centres. Because of this activity, the Amputierten-Initiative has become a member of many scientific societies, taken part in research projects and received personal and institutional honours. The acceptance and necessity of the Amputierten-Initiative and the need for its work become manifest in the rising number of its members.