diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index ef192436512a9b32e9d0dccf9f35a812514a8aa9..2e7f7c9acfa0ae4a2b91a9f3a5ce7bf7252ce1ea 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ nonlinelast_SOURCES     = nonlinelast.cc
 viscoelast_SOURCES      = viscoelast.cc
 
 # Build the unit tests as well
-SUBDIRS = test
+SUBDIRS = test m4
 
 # don't follow the full GNU-standard
 # we need automake 1.5
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 565f8514f1904168f975e937f7466851ba0555f6..af3bdfb7e7000ec7c43e1aa6355123dc4d1499dd 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -16,7 +16,8 @@ AC_SUBST(AM_LDFLAGS, $DUNE_LDFLAGS)
 LIBS="$DUNE_LIBS"
 
 AC_CONFIG_FILES([Makefile
-                 test/Makefile])
+                 test/Makefile
+                 m4/Makefile])
 AC_OUTPUT
 
 # finally print the summary information
diff --git a/m4/Makefile.am b/m4/Makefile.am
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..6f4a54cab57ac11f4d3f0bd3536421d49e6d2301
--- /dev/null
+++ b/m4/Makefile.am
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+ALLM4S = elasticity.m4
+
+aclocaldir = $(datadir)/aclocal
+aclocal_DATA = $(ALLM4S)
+
+EXTRA_DIST = $(ALLM4S)
+
+include $(top_srcdir)/am/global-rules
diff --git a/m4/elasticity.m4 b/m4/elasticity.m4
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..73f30cf80e67fd598f2ede3c4577d04ab103c094
--- /dev/null
+++ b/m4/elasticity.m4
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+AC_DEFUN([ELASTICITY_CHECKS],[
+#  AC_REQUIRE([DUNE_IPOPT])
+])
+
+AC_DEFUN([ELASTICITY_CHECK_MODULE],[
+  DUNE_CHECK_MODULES([elasticity], [src/elasticityhelpers.hh])
+])