diff --git a/drivers/include/periph/rtt.h b/drivers/include/periph/rtt.h
index 04b8cdd0310b51e3b7b84457065248bc78b6630b..89f76f74967edc1421fcf950e16991a27aee7190 100644
--- a/drivers/include/periph/rtt.h
+++ b/drivers/include/periph/rtt.h
@@ -29,9 +29,6 @@
 extern "C" {
 #endif
 
-/* guard file in case no RTT device was specified */
-#if RTT_NUMOF
-
 #ifndef RTT_FREQUENCY
 #warning "RTT_FREQUENCY undefined. Set RTT_FREQUENCY to the number of ticks" \
          "per second for the current architecture."
@@ -166,8 +163,6 @@ void rtt_poweron(void);
  */
 void rtt_poweroff(void);
 
-#endif /* RTT_NUMOF */
-
 #ifdef __cplusplus
 }
 #endif
diff --git a/drivers/periph_common/init.c b/drivers/periph_common/init.c
index 318f4194c1f1596641d2fb12f943f1db02bec2eb..3bb40b871d7df26b88662e022c4598a7f71f92aa 100644
--- a/drivers/periph_common/init.c
+++ b/drivers/periph_common/init.c
@@ -26,6 +26,9 @@
 #ifdef MODULE_PERIPH_RTC
 #include "periph/rtc.h"
 #endif
+#ifdef MODULE_PERIPH_RTT
+#include "periph/rtt.h"
+#endif
 #ifdef MODULE_PERIPH_HWRNG
 #include "periph/hwrng.h"
 #endif
@@ -44,6 +47,11 @@ void periph_init(void)
     rtc_init();
 #endif
 
+    /* Initialize RTT */
+#ifdef MODULE_PERIPH_RTT
+    rtt_init();
+#endif
+
 #ifdef MODULE_PERIPH_HWRNG
     hwrng_init();
 #endif