diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 163ace5..0ae02b0 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -47,13 +47,18 @@ tag_checked_out:
 #   In this case we might in some situations see an error like
 #   `/bin/bash: line 1: 2b55bbb: value too great for base (error token is "2b55bbb")`
 #   which can be ignored.
-GITDESC := $(shell git describe --tags --always)
+GITDESC := $(shell git describe --tags --always 2>/dev/null || true)
+CURRENT_FOLDER_NAME := $(notdir $(CURDIR))
+ifeq ($(strip $(GITDESC)),)
+SEMVER := $(CURRENT_FOLDER_NAME)
+else
 GITDESCPATCH := $(shell echo '$(GITDESC)' | sed -E 's/v?[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.([0-9]+)[-+]?.*/\1/')
 SEMVERPATCH := $(shell echo $$(( $(GITDESCPATCH) + 1 )))
 # Hint: The second regexp in the next line only matches
 #       if there is a hyphen (`-`) followed by a number,
 #       by which we assume that git describe has added a string after the tag
 SEMVER := $(shell echo '$(GITDESC)' | sed -E -e 's/^v//' -e 's/([0-9]+\.[0-9]+\.)([0-9]+)(-[1-9].*)/\1$(SEMVERPATCH)\3/' )
+endif
 testsemver:
 	@echo from \'$(GITDESC)\' transformed to \'$(SEMVER)\'