The verification of safety against buckling of unreinforced masonry walls according to the accurate design procedure of EN 1996-1-1 Appendix G is based on semi-empirical approaches, which do not always realistically describe the load-bearing behaviour. This statement is also supported by an objection of the country Denmark concerning the load capacity function which is regulated in Appendix G. Using new findings about the effects of non-linear material behaviour in case of stability failure this article investigates fundamental questions about the buckling behaviour of masonry walls and transfers these into a simple practical structural design proposal. As a result, the load capacity function can be considerably simplified, the influence of creep can be integrated and the number of input parameters can be reduced.