diff --git a/.circleci/config.yml b/.circleci/config.yml
index 1b5dcc6..90493e8 100644
--- a/.circleci/config.yml
+++ b/.circleci/config.yml
@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@ jobs:
       DOCKER_TAG: ocrd/tesserocr
     steps:
       - checkout
+      - run: git submodule sync && git submodule update --init
       - setup_remote_docker: # https://circleci.com/docs/2.0/building-docker-images/
           docker_layer_caching: true
       - run: make docker DOCKER_TAG=$DOCKER_TAG