diff --git a/common/fmatrix.hh b/common/fmatrix.hh
index c2bd4eccf21f3590b4dde53012e6cf536f1293ac..d1814e5afaf164b79e231f5b7df018dc281733a4 100644
--- a/common/fmatrix.hh
+++ b/common/fmatrix.hh
@@ -1413,6 +1413,15 @@ namespace Dune {
       }
     }
 
+    //! calculates ret = matrix * x
+    template <typename K, int dim>
+    static FieldVector<K,dim> mult(const FieldMatrix<K,dim,dim> &matrix, const FieldVector<K,dim> & x)
+    {
+      FieldVector<K,dim> ret;
+      multAssign(matrix,x,ret);
+      return ret;
+    }
+
   } // end namespace FMatrixHelp