diff --git a/Makefile.include b/Makefile.include
index d87802d7d20ff9252703cbe4411a4dd9df4fe096..794a309458de02e3d2d5449021acf04e95755811 100644
--- a/Makefile.include
+++ b/Makefile.include
@@ -111,6 +111,14 @@ endif
 
 QQ=
 
+# Set this to 1 to enable code in RIOT that does safety checking
+# which is not needed in a production environment but helps in the
+# development process:
+DEVELHELP ?= 0
+ifeq ($(DEVELHELP),1)
+  CFLAGS += -DDEVELHELP
+endif
+
 # Fail on warnings. Can be overridden by `make WERROR=0`.
 WERROR ?= 1
 export WERROR