In national and international guidelines the general practitioner plays an important role in the diagnosis and first-line therapy for urinary incontinence. Nevertheless, there is a lack of data concerning details of the management of incontinence in primary care in Germany. Therefore a series of nationwide educational events for general practitioners and gynaecologists was used to perform a survey dealing with the situation of urinary incontinence in general practice. With 2530 questionnaires filled out and returned, this is the largest European survey on this subject. General practitioners declare in 57.3 % to be often involved with urinary incontinence. They usually question elderly patients about urinary incontinence (73.7 %) or those patients with diseases carrying the risk of developing urinary incontinence (64.9 %). Based on the diagnostic options in primary care, an incontinence anamnesis and urine evaluation are performed. A sonography or micturition diary was more infrequent in primary care in this survey. General practitioners most frequent refer the patient to a specialist (76.6 %) or prescribe the incontinence-type anticholinergic drugs (59.4 %) or absorbent products (45.4 %); duloxetine (27.3 %) is less frequently prescribed. The knowledge about urinary incontinence is gained in educational events (72.2 %); the course of studies was the source of incontinence skills for general practitioners only in 35 %. In conclusion, this survey gives a realistic view on the incontinence management in primary care in Germany. The majority of general practitioners are engaged in incontinence, perform basic diagnostic features and prescribe drugs or absorbent products. The course of (university medical school) studies as a source of skills to diagnose or to treat incontinence should be improved.