diff --git a/cmake/modules/CheckCXXFeatures.cmake b/cmake/modules/CheckCXXFeatures.cmake
index 1f9b7746aed6ef6021a456a4cbf319b1a0812a5b..d8cb7ebdd1f6caf8bc6556629c485949b3f414df 100644
--- a/cmake/modules/CheckCXXFeatures.cmake
+++ b/cmake/modules/CheckCXXFeatures.cmake
@@ -75,12 +75,6 @@ endif()
 
 # perform tests
 
-# Check for `std::make_array(...)`
-dune_check_cxx_source_compiles("
-  #include <experimental/array>
-  int main() { auto a = std::experimental::make_array(1,2,3); }
-" DUNE_HAVE_CXX_EXPERIMENTAL_MAKE_ARRAY)
-
 # Check for `std::is_detected<...>`
 dune_check_cxx_source_compiles("
   #include <experimental/type_traits>
diff --git a/dune/common/bitsetvector.hh b/dune/common/bitsetvector.hh
index 463048b54ddd060adfefc8c6049b23ca93ab8ba1..e84fbc74a67f5830e2d05dd37ca5976c8b7167b9 100644
--- a/dune/common/bitsetvector.hh
+++ b/dune/common/bitsetvector.hh
@@ -318,31 +318,11 @@ namespace Dune {
       return *this;
     }
 
-  private:
-
-    // For some reason, the following variant of operator^= triggers an ICE or a hanging
-    // compiler on Debian 9 with GCC 6.3 and full optimizations enabled (-O3).
-    // The only way to reliably avoid the issue is by making sure that the compiler does not
-    // see the XOR in the context of the function, so here is a little helper that will normally
-    // be inlined, but not on the broken compiler. This incurs a substantial overhead (a function
-    // call), but until someone else has a better idea, it's the only way to make it work reliably.
-
-    static bool xor_helper(bool a, bool b)
-#if defined(__GNUC__) && ! defined(__clang__) && __GNUC__ == 6 && __GNUC_MINOR__ == 3 && __cplusplus \
-  == 201402L
-      __attribute__((noinline))
-#endif
-      ;
-
-  public:
-
     //! Bitwise exclusive or (for BitSetVectorConstReference and BitSetVectorReference)
     BitSetVectorReference& operator^=(const BitSetVectorConstReference& x)
     {
-      // This uses the helper from above to hoist the actual XOR computation out of the function for
-      // the buggy version of GCC.
       for (size_type i=0; i<block_size; i++)
-        getBit(i) = xor_helper(test(i),x.test(i));
+        getBit(i) = (test(i) ^ x.test(i));
       return *this;
     }
 
@@ -426,14 +406,6 @@ namespace Dune {
     }
   };
 
-  // implementation of helper - I put it into the template to avoid having
-  // to compile it in a dedicated compilation unit
-  template<int block_size, class Alloc>
-  bool BitSetVectorReference<block_size,Alloc>::xor_helper(bool a, bool b)
-  {
-    return a ^ b;
-  }
-
   /**
      typetraits for BitSetVectorReference
    */
diff --git a/dune/common/fvector.hh b/dune/common/fvector.hh
index aafd98d59c574fe7af7a10efd84b4e478a47e967..3bdc11f2ec58e966beb9b346b5d919bd70a9c65d 100644
--- a/dune/common/fvector.hh
+++ b/dune/common/fvector.hh
@@ -119,14 +119,8 @@ namespace Dune {
       std::fill(_data.begin(),_data.end(),t);
     }
 
-#if __GNUC__ == 5 && !defined(__clang__)
-    // `... = default;` causes an internal compiler error on GCC 5.4 (Ubuntu 16.04)
-    //! copy constructor
-    FieldVector(const FieldVector& x) : _data(x._data) {}
-#else
     //! Copy constructor
     FieldVector (const FieldVector&) = default;
-#endif
 
     /** \brief Construct from a std::initializer_list */
     constexpr FieldVector (std::initializer_list<K> const &l)
diff --git a/dune/common/test/fmatrixtest.cc b/dune/common/test/fmatrixtest.cc
index 32cd9ccff534de87d5ebe2f449d8c0397e271ec3..0a913da5d31b098c189f1241f7222b74040ff278 100644
--- a/dune/common/test/fmatrixtest.cc
+++ b/dune/common/test/fmatrixtest.cc
@@ -813,12 +813,10 @@ void test_interface()
   typedef CheckMatrixInterface::UseFieldVector< K2, rows, cols > Traits;
   typedef Dune::FieldMatrix< K, rows, cols > FMatrix;
 
-#if __GNUC__ != 5 || defined(__clang__)
   static_assert(
     !std::is_trivially_copyable<K>::value || std::is_trivially_copyable<FMatrix>::value,
     "FieldMatrix<T, ...> must be trivially copyable type when T is trivial type"
     );
-#endif
   static_assert(
     std::is_standard_layout<FMatrix>::value,
     "FieldMatrix<...> must be a standard layout type"
diff --git a/dune/common/test/fvectortest.cc b/dune/common/test/fvectortest.cc
index 194c5ca06749375731cac318bd40a39a33c967d0..e94cb4a58aeffb17d68c30b7c5e158aecf4cf6fc 100644
--- a/dune/common/test/fvectortest.cc
+++ b/dune/common/test/fvectortest.cc
@@ -38,12 +38,10 @@ template<class ft, class rt, int d>
 struct FieldVectorMainTestCommons
 {
   FieldVectorMainTestCommons() {
-#if __GNUC__ != 5 || defined(__clang__)
     static_assert(
       !std::is_trivially_copyable<ft>::value || std::is_trivially_copyable< FieldVector<ft, d> >::value,
       "FieldVector<T, ...> must be a trivially copyable type when T is a trivial type"
       );
-#endif
     static_assert(
       std::is_standard_layout< FieldVector<ft, d> >::value,
       "FieldVector<...> must be a standard layout type"