diff --git a/fhem/fhem.pl b/fhem/fhem.pl
index e45d69602..275d87055 100755
--- a/fhem/fhem.pl
+++ b/fhem/fhem.pl
@@ -1625,7 +1625,17 @@ GlobalAttr($$)
     push @INC, $modpath if(!grep(/$modpath/, @INC));
     eval { 
       use vars qw($DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION);
-      require "FhemUtils/release.pm";
+      # start of fix
+      # "Use of uninitialized value" after a fresh 5.2 installation and first time "updatefhem"
+      # release.pm does not reside in FhemUtils (what it should), so we load it from $modpath
+      if(-e "$modpath/FhemUtils/release.pm") {
+        require "FhemUtils/release.pm";
+      } elsif(-e:"$modpath/release.pm") {
+        require "release.pm";
+      } else {
+        $DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION = "unknown";
+      }
+      # end of fix
       $attr{global}{version} = "$DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION, $cvsid";
     };
     my $counter = 0;