diff --git a/src/caosdb/__init__.py b/src/caosdb/__init__.py
index cc5b3f9be545021c8a884d2fc52080c725047a8d..69f8f24e8eab9f3528eb2133cf8a49cd0d19acdf 100644
--- a/src/caosdb/__init__.py
+++ b/src/caosdb/__init__.py
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@
 
 # Import of the connection function (which is used to connect to the DB):
 from os.path import expanduser, join
-from os import getcwd
+from os import getcwd, environ
 from caosdb.configuration import configure, get_config
 
 from caosdb.common import administration
@@ -44,5 +44,8 @@ from caosdb.common.models import (delete, execute_query, raise_errors,
 import caosdb.apiutils
 
 # read configuration these files
-configure(expanduser('~/.pycaosdb.ini'))
+if "PYCAOSDBINI" in environ:
+    configure(expanduser(environ["PYCAOSDBINI"]))
+else:
+    configure(expanduser('~/.pycaosdb.ini'))
 configure(join(getcwd(), "pycaosdb.ini"))