diff --git a/server/src/main/java/envoy/server/processors/IssueProposalProcessor.java b/server/src/main/java/envoy/server/processors/IssueProposalProcessor.java
index 6f3dbbb..78feb21 100644
--- a/server/src/main/java/envoy/server/processors/IssueProposalProcessor.java
+++ b/server/src/main/java/envoy/server/processors/IssueProposalProcessor.java
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ public final class IssueProposalProcessor implements ObjectProcessor<IssuePropos
 			// Two types of authorization are currently supported: access token as
 			// query param or access token as authorization header
 			final var authenticationToken = config.getIssueAuthToken();
-			if (authenticationToken != null) {
+			if (!authenticationToken.equals("")) {
 				final String auth = "token " + authenticationToken;
 				connection.setRequestProperty("Authorization", auth);
 			}
diff --git a/server/src/main/resources/server.properties b/server/src/main/resources/server.properties
index 2d50513..d5da895 100644
--- a/server/src/main/resources/server.properties
+++ b/server/src/main/resources/server.properties
@@ -7,10 +7,11 @@ issueCreationURL=https://git.kske.dev/api/v1/repos/zdm/envoy/issues?access_token
 userMadeLabel=240
 bugLabel=117
 featureLabel=119
-# api.github.com config - supply an additional auth token
+# api.github.com config
 #issueCreationURL=https://api.github.com/repos/informatik-ag-ngl/envoy/issues
 #userMadeLabel="user made"
 #bugLabel="bug"
 #featureLabel="feature"
+issueAuthToken=
 consoleLevelBarrier=FINEST
 fileLevelBarrier=WARNING