diff --git a/src/caoscrawler/crawl.py b/src/caoscrawler/crawl.py
index 0d28ad5f2924978677a4af48664d5cf1ccfca069..26073cff3efeb6386617f422c54679d05ef9ce70 100644
--- a/src/caoscrawler/crawl.py
+++ b/src/caoscrawler/crawl.py
@@ -700,6 +700,8 @@ class Crawler(object):
             if ent.role == "Record" and len(ent.parents) == 0:
                 raise RuntimeError(f"Records must have a parent.\n{ent}")
 
+        try_to_merge_later = []
+
         # Check whether Records can be identified without identifiable
         for i in reversed(range(len(flat))):
             record = flat[i]
@@ -739,7 +741,6 @@ class Crawler(object):
 
         entity_was_treated = True
         # flat contains Entities which could not yet be checked against the remote server
-        try_to_merge_later = []
         while entity_was_treated and len(flat) > 0:
             entity_was_treated = False
             referencing_entities = self.create_reference_mapping(all_records)