diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index e055b542..54edef55 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -2,6 +2,9 @@
 FROM node:16
 WORKDIR /automatisch
 
+RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y postgresql-client
+COPY ./docker/wait-for-postgres.sh /automatisch/wait-for-postgres.sh
+
 # npm registry for dev purposes
 RUN npm config set fetch-retry-maxtimeout 5000
 RUN npm config set fetch-retry-mintimeout 3000
@@ -15,4 +18,4 @@ RUN echo "APP_SECRET_KEY=$(openssl rand -base64 36)" >> /automatisch/storage/.en
 RUN yarn global add @automatisch/cli
 
 EXPOSE 3000
-CMD ["automatisch", "start", "--env-file=/automatisch/storage/.env"]
+CMD sh /automatisch/wait-for-postgres.sh automatisch start --env-file=/automatisch/storage/.env
diff --git a/docker/wait-for-postgres.sh b/docker/wait-for-postgres.sh
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..450fffec
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docker/wait-for-postgres.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+set -e
+
+until psql -h "$POSTGRES_HOST" -U "$POSTGRES_USERNAME" -d "$POSTGRES_HOST" -c '\q'; do
+  >&2 echo "Postgres is unavailable - sleeping"
+  sleep 1
+done
+
+>&2 echo "Postgres is up - executing command"
+exec "$@"