diff --git a/CMakeExternals/VTK.cmake b/CMakeExternals/VTK.cmake
index a3ef5f7bd6..54f7bbb1bf 100644
--- a/CMakeExternals/VTK.cmake
+++ b/CMakeExternals/VTK.cmake
@@ -1,94 +1,102 @@
 #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # 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()
 
+  # Optionally enable memory leak checks for any objects derived from vtkObject. This
+  # will force unit tests to fail if they have any of these memory leaks.
+  option(MITK_VTK_DEBUG_LEAKS OFF)
+  mark_as_advanced(MITK_VTK_DEBUG_LEAKS)
+  set(additional_cmake_args
+      -DVTK_DEBUG_LEAKS:BOOL=${MITK_VTK_DEBUG_LEAKS}
+      )
+
   if(MITK_USE_Python)
     list(APPEND additional_cmake_args
          -DVTK_WRAP_PYTHON:BOOL=ON
          -DVTK_USE_TK:BOOL=OFF
          -DVTK_WINDOWS_PYTHON_DEBUGGABLE:BOOL=OFF
          -DPYTHON_EXECUTABLE:FILEPATH=${PYTHON_EXECUTABLE}
          -DPYTHON_INCLUDE_DIR:PATH=${PYTHON_INCLUDE_DIR}
          -DPYTHON_INCLUDE_DIR2:PATH=${PYTHON_INCLUDE_DIR2}
          -DPYTHON_LIBRARY:FILEPATH=${PYTHON_LIBRARY}
          #-DPYTHON_LIBRARIES=${PYTHON_LIBRARY}
          #-DPYTHON_DEBUG_LIBRARIES=${PYTHON_DEBUG_LIBRARIES}
         )
   else()
     list(APPEND additional_cmake_args
          -DVTK_WRAP_PYTHON:BOOL=OFF
          -DVTK_WINDOWS_PYTHON_DEBUGGABLE:BOOL=OFF
         )
   endif()
 
   if(MITK_USE_QT)
     list(APPEND additional_cmake_args
         -DVTK_QT_VERSION:STRING=${DESIRED_QT_VERSION}
         -DQT_QMAKE_EXECUTABLE:FILEPATH=${QT_QMAKE_EXECUTABLE}
         -DModule_vtkGUISupportQt:BOOL=ON
         -DModule_vtkGUISupportQtWebkit:BOOL=ON
         -DModule_vtkGUISupportQtSQL:BOOL=ON
         -DModule_vtkRenderingQt:BOOL=ON
         -DVTK_Group_Qt:BOOL=ON
      )
   endif()
 
   set(VTK_URL ${MITK_THIRDPARTY_DOWNLOAD_PREFIX_URL}/VTK-6.1.0.tar.gz)
   set(VTK_URL_MD5 25e4dfb3bad778722dcaec80cd5dab7d)
 
 
   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
         ${ep_common_args}
         -DVTK_WRAP_TCL:BOOL=OFF
         -DVTK_WRAP_PYTHON:BOOL=OFF
         -DVTK_WRAP_JAVA:BOOL=OFF
         -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS:BOOL=ON
         -DVTK_USE_SYSTEM_FREETYPE:BOOL=${VTK_USE_SYSTEM_FREETYPE}
         -DVTK_LEGACY_REMOVE:BOOL=ON
         -DModule_vtkTestingRendering:BOOL=ON
         -DVTK_MAKE_INSTANTIATORS:BOOL=ON
         ${additional_cmake_args}
      DEPENDS ${proj_DEPENDENCIES}
     )
 
   set(VTK_DIR ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/${proj}-build)
 
 else()
 
   mitkMacroEmptyExternalProject(${proj} "${proj_DEPENDENCIES}")
 
 endif()