diff --git a/CMakeExternals/VTK.cmake b/CMakeExternals/VTK.cmake
index 9a3aab40ed..c463325eb2 100644
--- a/CMakeExternals/VTK.cmake
+++ b/CMakeExternals/VTK.cmake
@@ -1,104 +1,83 @@
 #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # VTK
 #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 if(WIN32)
   option(VTK_USE_SYSTEM_FREETYPE OFF)
 else(WIN32)
   option(VTK_USE_SYSTEM_FREETYPE ON)
 endif(WIN32)
 
 # Sanity checks
 if(DEFINED VTK_DIR AND NOT EXISTS ${VTK_DIR})
   message(FATAL_ERROR "VTK_DIR variable is defined but corresponds to non-existing directory")
 endif()
 
 set(proj VTK)
 set(proj_DEPENDENCIES )
 set(VTK_DEPENDS ${proj})
 
 if(NOT DEFINED VTK_DIR)
 
   set(additional_cmake_args )
   if(MINGW)
     set(additional_cmake_args
         -DCMAKE_USE_WIN32_THREADS:BOOL=ON
         -DCMAKE_USE_PTHREADS:BOOL=OFF
         -DVTK_USE_VIDEO4WINDOWS:BOOL=OFF # no header files provided by MinGW
         )
   endif()
 
   if(MITK_USE_Python)
     list(APPEND additional_cmake_args
          -DVTK_WRAP_PYTHON:BOOL=ON
          -DVTK_USE_TK:BOOL=OFF
          -DVTK_WINDOWS_PYTHON_DEBUGGABLE:BOOL=OFF
         )
   endif()
   
   if(MITK_USE_QT)
     list(APPEND additional_cmake_args
         -DDESIRED_QT_VERSION:STRING=4
         -DVTK_USE_GUISUPPORT:BOOL=ON
         -DVTK_USE_QVTK_QTOPENGL:BOOL=OFF
         -DVTK_USE_QT:BOOL=ON
         -DQT_QMAKE_EXECUTABLE:FILEPATH=${QT_QMAKE_EXECUTABLE}
      )
   endif()
 
-  option(MITK_USE_VTK_5_8_IN_SUPERBUILD "Use VTK 5.8 in MITK superbuild" OFF)
-  
-  include(mitkFunctionGetGccVersion)
-  mitkFunctionGetGccVersion(${CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER} GCC_VERSION)
-  if(GCC_VERSION AND NOT ${GCC_VERSION} VERSION_LESS "4.6")
-    if(NOT MITK_USE_VTK_5_8_IN_SUPERBUILD)
-      message("Forcing VTK 5.8 since we're using gcc ${GCC_VERSION}")
-    endif()  
-    set(MITK_USE_VTK_5_8_IN_SUPERBUILD ON CACHE BOOL "Use VTK 5.8 in MITK superbuild" FORCE)
-  endif()
-  
-  if(CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER MATCHES clang)
-    if(NOT MITK_USE_VTK_5_8_IN_SUPERBUILD)
-      message("Forcing VTK 5.8 since we're using clang")
-    endif()  
-    set(MITK_USE_VTK_5_8_IN_SUPERBUILD ON CACHE BOOL "Use VTK 5.8 in MITK superbuild" FORCE)
-  endif()
-  if(MITK_USE_VTK_5_8_IN_SUPERBUILD)
-    set(VTK_URL ${MITK_THIRDPARTY_DOWNLOAD_PREFIX_URL}/vtk-5.8.0.tar.gz)
-    set(VTK_URL_MD5 37b7297d02d647cc6ca95b38174cb41f)
-  else()
-    set(VTK_URL ${MITK_THIRDPARTY_DOWNLOAD_PREFIX_URL}/vtk-5.6.1.tar.gz)
-    set(VTK_URL_MD5 b80a76435207c5d0f74dfcab15b75181)
-  endif()
+  #use only VTK 5.8 in superbuild until all issues regarding VTK 5.10 are solved
+  set(VTK_URL ${MITK_THIRDPARTY_DOWNLOAD_PREFIX_URL}/vtk-5.8.0.tar.gz)
+  set(VTK_URL_MD5 37b7297d02d647cc6ca95b38174cb41f)
 
   ExternalProject_Add(${proj}
     SOURCE_DIR ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/${proj}-src
     BINARY_DIR ${proj}-build
     PREFIX ${proj}-cmake
     URL ${VTK_URL}
     URL_MD5 ${VTK_URL_MD5}
     INSTALL_COMMAND ""
     CMAKE_GENERATOR ${gen}
     CMAKE_ARGS
         ${ep_common_args}
         -DVTK_WRAP_TCL:BOOL=OFF
         -DVTK_WRAP_PYTHON:BOOL=OFF
         -DVTK_WRAP_JAVA:BOOL=OFF
         -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS:BOOL=ON 
         -DVTK_USE_PARALLEL:BOOL=ON
         -DVTK_USE_CHARTS:BOOL=OFF
         -DVTK_USE_QTCHARTS:BOOL=ON
         -DVTK_USE_GEOVIS:BOOL=OFF
         -DVTK_USE_SYSTEM_FREETYPE:BOOL=${VTK_USE_SYSTEM_FREETYPE}
         -DVTK_USE_QVTK_QTOPENGL:BOOL=OFF
         -DVTK_LEGACY_REMOVE:BOOL=ON
         ${additional_cmake_args}
      DEPENDS ${proj_DEPENDENCIES}
     )
   set(VTK_DIR ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/${proj}-build)
 
 else()
 
   mitkMacroEmptyExternalProject(${proj} "${proj_DEPENDENCIES}")
   
 endif()