AbstractCouching as the first surgical method for cataract has been performed for about 4000 years. Until mid of the 20th century, attention was spent on removing the opaque lens from the line of sight – refractive correction was provided as spectacle lenses. During World War II – the British ophthalmologist Harold Ridley had to treat pilots suffering from penetrating eye injuries after being shot down. He found that splints from the cockpit cover – which were made from PMMA – did not induce inflammatory reactions. Inspired by his student Steve Parry he started to develop an intraocular implant made of PMMA – which was the birth of the modern intraocular lens. The invention of phacoemulsification by Charles Kelman and the capulorhexis by Neuhann and Gimbel led the way to the success of modern posterior chamber lenses. Until the late 1970’s, lenses were made of PMMA until the first flexible silicone lenses came up. Starting in the late 1980s the silicone lenses were successively replaced by acrylic lenses. Nowadays the majority of lenses are made from acrylic material.