diff --git a/CMake/mitkFunctionGetVersionDescription.cmake b/CMake/mitkFunctionGetVersionDescription.cmake
index 9e47452e93..a4140dd867 100644
--- a/CMake/mitkFunctionGetVersionDescription.cmake
+++ b/CMake/mitkFunctionGetVersionDescription.cmake
@@ -1,59 +1,65 @@
 #! \brief Extract the version description from a local working copy
 #!
 #! If the given repository is a git repository, the functions runs the
 #! git rev-parse --exact-match HEAD command
 #!
 #! Information provided is stored in  ${prefix}_REVISION_DESC an is
 #! \ul
 #!  \li The exact tag if the HEAD of the source-tree has a tag
 #!  \li the 'git describe' output, which is <latest-reachable-tag>-<#Commits>-g<SHORT-HASH>
 #! \lu
 #! In case the working copy contains local changes, the ${prefix}_REVISION_DESC strings will contain
 #! a suffix [local changes]
 #!
 #! \param source_dir The directory containing a working copy
 #! \param prefix A prefix to prepent to the variables containing
 #!               the extracted information
 #!
 function(mitkFunctionGetVersionDescription source_dir prefix)
 
   if(NOT prefix)
     message(FATAL_ERROR "prefix argument not specified")
   endif()
 
   # initialize variable
-  set(_wc_description "NO TAG FOUND")
+  set(_wc_description "unknown_version")
   set(_dirty_repo_str "-local_changes")
 
   find_package(Git)
   if(GIT_FOUND)
 
     GIT_IS_REPO(${source_dir} _is_git_repo)
     if(_is_git_repo)
       execute_process(COMMAND ${GIT_EXECUTABLE} describe --exact-match --dirty=${_dirty_repo_str}
                       WORKING_DIRECTORY ${source_dir}
                       OUTPUT_VARIABLE _project_git_tagname
-                      RESULT_VARIABLE _proper_version
-                      ERROR_VARIABLE _description_error )
-      if(_proper_version EQUAL 0 )
+                      RESULT_VARIABLE _proper_version)
+      if(_proper_version EQUAL 0)
         set(_wc_description ${_project_git_tagname})
 
-      else(_proper_version EQUAL 0)
+      else()
         # the execution failed, i.e. the HEAD has no tag,
         # for fallback string: execute again but without the --exact-match
         execute_process(COMMAND ${GIT_EXECUTABLE} describe --dirty=${_dirty_repo_str}
                     WORKING_DIRECTORY ${source_dir}
                     OUTPUT_VARIABLE _wc_description
-                    RESULT_VARIABLE _proper_version
-                    ERROR_VARIABLE _description_error)
+                    RESULT_VARIABLE _proper_version)
+
+        if(_proper_version EQUAL 0)
+          # last fallback, i.e. working copy is a shallow clone, at least use
+          # commit hash
+          execute_process(COMMAND ${GIT_EXECUTABLE} describe --always --dirty=${_dirty_repo_str}
+                    WORKING_DIRECTORY ${source_dir}
+                    OUTPUT_VARIABLE _wc_description)
+        endif()
       endif()
 
       # remove newline at and of the string
       string(STRIP "${_wc_description}" _wc_description)
 
     endif()
   endif()
 
-  set(${prefix}_REVISION_DESC ${_wc_description} PARENT_SCOPE )
+  set(${prefix}_REVISION_DESC ${_wc_description} PARENT_SCOPE)
 
 endfunction()