diff --git a/src/caosdb/configuration.py b/src/caosdb/configuration.py
index 6e8a9c6ff2083b0c30324722003fb3c08a592191..842f1ee62a5b3178b7305e4c1e0c281a2dbd3b38 100644
--- a/src/caosdb/configuration.py
+++ b/src/caosdb/configuration.py
@@ -51,6 +51,7 @@ def configure(inifile):
 
 
 def get_config():
+    global _pycaosdbconf
     return _pycaosdbconf