diff --git a/dune/common/test/tuplestest.cc b/dune/common/test/tuplestest.cc
index 2f517c87a91fb6d853b364a0bd9c18b021a31134..31cc8d392bedb003f907595344b98790086519f3 100644
--- a/dune/common/test/tuplestest.cc
+++ b/dune/common/test/tuplestest.cc
@@ -3,6 +3,11 @@
 
 // $Id$
 
+// make sure assert works even when not compiling for debugging
+#ifdef NDEBUG
+#undef NDEBUG
+#endif
+
 #ifdef HAVE_CONFIG_H
 #include "config.h"
 #endif