diff --git a/python/CHANGELOG b/python/CHANGELOG
index e906e5e1d..0dfffc4e1 100644
--- a/python/CHANGELOG
+++ b/python/CHANGELOG
@@ -1,3 +1,10 @@
+0.600.1
+---------
+
+- introduce automatic versioning via setuptools_scm, 
+  based on py-X.Y.Z tags 
+
+
 0.600.0
 ---------
 
diff --git a/python/setup.py b/python/setup.py
index bd1919ad2..b0e94339d 100644
--- a/python/setup.py
+++ b/python/setup.py
@@ -4,14 +4,19 @@ import re
 
 
 def main():
-    long_description, version = read_meta()
+    with open("README.rst") as f:
+        long_description = f.read()
     setuptools.setup(
         name='deltachat',
-        version=version,
+        setup_requires=['setuptools_scm', 'cffi>=1.0.0'],
+        use_scm_version = {
+            "root": "..",
+            "relative_to": __file__,
+            'tag_regex': r'^(?P<prefix>py-)?(?P<version>[^\+]+)(?P<suffix>.*)?$',
+        },
         description='Python bindings for the Delta Chat Core library using CFFI against the Rust-implemented libdeltachat',
         long_description=long_description,
         author='holger krekel, Floris Bruynooghe, Bjoern Petersen and contributors',
-        setup_requires=['cffi>=1.0.0'],
         install_requires=['cffi>=1.0.0', 'attrs', 'six'],
         packages=setuptools.find_packages('src'),
         package_dir={'': 'src'},
@@ -27,18 +32,5 @@ def main():
     )
 
 
-def read_meta():
-    with open(os.path.join("src", "deltachat", "__init__.py")) as f:
-        for line in f:
-            m = re.match('__version__ = "(\S*).*"', line)
-            if m:
-                version, = m.groups()
-                break
-
-    with open("README.rst") as f:
-        long_desc = f.read()
-    return long_desc, version
-
-
 if __name__ == "__main__":
     main()
diff --git a/python/src/deltachat/__init__.py b/python/src/deltachat/__init__.py
index 8bb855ca5..a8d338aba 100644
--- a/python/src/deltachat/__init__.py
+++ b/python/src/deltachat/__init__.py
@@ -2,7 +2,12 @@ from deltachat import capi, const
 from deltachat.capi import ffi
 from deltachat.account import Account  # noqa
 
-__version__ = "0.600.0"
+from pkg_resources import get_distribution, DistributionNotFound
+try:
+    __version__ = get_distribution(__name__).version
+except DistributionNotFound:
+    # package is not installed
+    __version__ = "0.0.0.dev0-unknown"
 
 
 _DC_CALLBACK_MAP = {}
diff --git a/python/tests/package_wheels.py b/python/tests/package_wheels.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..1b67fdcb3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/python/tests/package_wheels.py
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+
+import os
+import sys
+import subprocess
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    assert len(sys.argv) == 2
+    wheelhousedir = sys.argv[1]
+    # pip wheel will build in an isolated tmp dir that does not have git
+    # history so setuptools_scm can not automatically determine a
+    # version there. So pass in the version through an env var.
+    version = subprocess.check_output(["python", "setup.py", "--version"]).strip().split(b"\n")[-1]
+    os.environ["SETUPTOOLS_SCM_PRETEND_VERSION"] = version.decode("ascii")
+    subprocess.check_call(("pip wheel . -w %s" % wheelhousedir).split())
diff --git a/python/tox.ini b/python/tox.ini
index 68167887f..ccac3dee6 100644
--- a/python/tox.ini
+++ b/python/tox.ini
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ envlist =
 [testenv]
 commands = 
     pytest -rsXx {posargs:tests}
-    pip wheel . -w {toxworkdir}/wheelhouse
+    python tests/package_wheels.py {toxworkdir}/wheelhouse
 passenv = 
     TRAVIS 
     DCC_RS_DEV