diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 0fd1e86926f3a1e3df68a6071f6824f28a2ff422..895cc7ab27515c2648bc85c7180faec3b6abbe9e 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -14,3 +14,4 @@ _local_tmp
 /lbmpy_tests/db
 doc/bibtex.json
 /html_doc
+RELEASE-VERSION
diff --git a/lbmpy/__init__.py b/lbmpy/__init__.py
index e69de29bb2d1d6434b8b29ae775ad8c2e48c5391..8e4c54f2d057e440fee491193210d25e427b181b 100644
--- a/lbmpy/__init__.py
+++ b/lbmpy/__init__.py
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+def _get_release_file():
+    import os.path
+    file_path = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__))
+    return os.path.join(file_path, '..', 'RELEASE-VERSION')
+
+
+try:
+    __version__ = open(_get_release_file(), 'r').read()
+except IOError:
+    __version__ = 'development'
diff --git a/lbmpy_tests/test_version_string.py b/lbmpy_tests/test_version_string.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..b1c0b28fc823475ee45b605d96a61421b8ad5dfb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lbmpy_tests/test_version_string.py
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+import pystencils as ps
+from pathlib import Path
+
+def test_version_string():
+    file_path = Path(__file__).parent
+    release_version = file_path.parent.absolute() / 'RELEASE-VERSION'
+    if release_version.exists ():
+        with open(release_version, "r") as f:
+            version = f.read()
+        assert ps.__version__ == version
+    else:
+        assert ps.__version__ == "development"