Appropriate pharmacotherapy is one of the most important topics due to demographic development in many industrialised countries. The purpose of our work was to evaluate and adjust a French consensus list for Germany.We conducted a thorough literature review with regard to the safety of drugs for the elderly.Originally, 34 criteria containing drugs or drug classes were classified as inappropriate. From these, we evaluated 12 criteria as appropriate, and all others as potentially inappropriate, too. Frequently, drugs affecting the central nervous system, for example anticholinergics and benzodiazepines, were evaluated as potentially inappropriate medication.Our adapted list may be used as recommendation for appropriate drug prescribing in the elderly in Germany.