diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e660fd93d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+bin/
diff --git a/src/main.c b/src/main.c
index ebf949f04..49f8503fb 100644
--- a/src/main.c
+++ b/src/main.c
@@ -215,7 +215,9 @@ void locale_init(void)
 {
   setlocale(LC_CTYPE, "");
   setlocale(LC_NUMERIC, "C");
-  assert(towlower(0xC4)==0xE4); /* Ä => ä */
+  if (towlower(0xC4)!=0xE4) { /* Ä => ä */
+    log_error(("Umlaut conversion is not working properly. Wrong locale? LANG=%s\n", getenv("LANG")));
+  }
 }
 
 extern void bind_eressea(struct lua_State * L);