diff --git a/include/caosdb/constants.h.in b/include/caosdb/constants.h.in
index fcc0f7080a36b87c6592b59e89870362c267fad9..a42c9dfd563df0a340553daf3cbcf3726bf0054e 100644
--- a/include/caosdb/constants.h.in
+++ b/include/caosdb/constants.h.in
@@ -22,6 +22,9 @@
 
 #ifndef CAOSDB_CONSTANTS_H
 #define CAOSDB_CONSTANTS_H
+#ifndef __GNUC__
+#  define  __attribute__(x)
+#endif
 #ifdef __cplusplus
 namespace caosdb {
 #endif