diff --git a/mc_backend/mcserver/app/__init__.py b/mc_backend/mcserver/app/__init__.py
index 748933bce6ddf2d4884a391b4e84d0c4c95ede93..76f2e91961eae1ee6edec0335c032430e7d90c45 100644
--- a/mc_backend/mcserver/app/__init__.py
+++ b/mc_backend/mcserver/app/__init__.py
@@ -61,17 +61,16 @@ def create_app(cfg: Type[Config] = Config) -> Flask:
     return app
 
 
-def full_init(app: Flask, is_csm: bool) -> None:
+def full_init(app: Flask, cfg: Type[Config] = Config) -> None:
     """ Fully initializes the application, including logging."""
-    if is_csm:
-        from mcserver.app.services import DatabaseService
-        DatabaseService.init_db_update_info()
-        DatabaseService.update_exercises(is_csm=is_csm)
-        DatabaseService.init_db_corpus()
-        if not app.config["TESTING"]:
-            from mcserver.app.services.corpusService import CorpusService
-            CorpusService.init_graphannis_logging()
-            start_updater(app)
+    from mcserver.app.services import DatabaseService
+    DatabaseService.init_db_update_info()
+    DatabaseService.update_exercises(is_csm=True)
+    DatabaseService.init_db_corpus()
+    if not cfg.TESTING:
+        from mcserver.app.services.corpusService import CorpusService
+        CorpusService.init_graphannis_logging()
+        start_updater(app)
 
 
 def init_app_common(cfg: Type[Config] = Config, is_csm: bool = False) -> Flask:
@@ -91,14 +90,13 @@ def init_app_common(cfg: Type[Config] = Config, is_csm: bool = False) -> Flask:
     if is_csm:
         from mcserver.app.services.databaseService import DatabaseService
         DatabaseService.init_db_alembic()
-    tables: List[str] = [Config.DATABASE_TABLE_ALEMBIC, Config.DATABASE_TABLE_CORPUS, Config.DATABASE_TABLE_EXERCISE,
-                         Config.DATABASE_TABLE_UPDATEINFO]
-    if any(not db.engine.dialect.has_table(db.engine, x) for x in tables):
+    if is_csm or cfg.TESTING:
         db.create_all()
     from mcserver.app.services.textService import TextService
     TextService.init_proper_nouns_list()
     TextService.init_stop_words_latin()
-    full_init(app, is_csm)
+    if is_csm:
+        full_init(app, cfg)
     return app
 
 
diff --git a/mc_backend/mcserver/app/api/corpusListAPI.py b/mc_backend/mcserver/app/api/corpusListAPI.py
index 10e9b08e8f046773bc8342b2132c053ca62d4311..aee95a4b8df4b04ea27fe130b3f841948d65c347 100644
--- a/mc_backend/mcserver/app/api/corpusListAPI.py
+++ b/mc_backend/mcserver/app/api/corpusListAPI.py
@@ -1,6 +1,4 @@
 """The corpus list API. Add it to your REST API to provide users with a list of metadata for available texts."""
-from datetime import datetime
-
 from connexion.lifecycle import ConnexionResponse
 from flask import Response
 from sqlalchemy.exc import OperationalError, InvalidRequestError
diff --git a/mc_backend/tests.py b/mc_backend/tests.py
index 6666e37e166f19e4bff442d1577dd07f3a322de7..9f0e8d887c7f55c6aa6d94ad588e9e9abccf1ef0 100644
--- a/mc_backend/tests.py
+++ b/mc_backend/tests.py
@@ -758,7 +758,7 @@ class CsmTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
         Mocks.app_dict[self.class_name].app.config["TESTING"] = False
         with patch.object(CorpusService, "init_graphannis_logging"):
             with patch.object(mcserver.app, "start_updater") as updater_mock:
-                full_init(Mocks.app_dict[self.class_name].app, True)
+                full_init(Mocks.app_dict[self.class_name].app)
                 self.assertEqual(updater_mock.call_count, 1)
         Mocks.app_dict[self.class_name].app.config["TESTING"] = True
         db.session.query(UpdateInfo).delete()
diff --git a/mc_frontend/nginx.conf b/mc_frontend/nginx.conf
index 41e3accdfa4af90b0b769fe215190ecca93972cd..d63e5e315a964dc4d31c1d6f6ae3debf27b4b19c 100644
--- a/mc_frontend/nginx.conf
+++ b/mc_frontend/nginx.conf
@@ -32,10 +32,17 @@ http {
             index  index.html index.htm;
             # enable CORS so the cordova files (config.xml) can be accessed from other domains
             add_header Access-Control-Allow-Origin *;
-            rewrite ^(.*)mc-service(.*)^ http://localhost:5000$2 last;
             try_files $uri $uri/ /index.html =404;
         }
 
+        # dirty hack to redirect the OpenAPI requests for their schema definition
+        location ~ /openapi.json$ {
+          resolver 127.0.0.11 valid=30s;
+          set $backend_host mcserver;
+          rewrite /(.*) /mc/$1 break;
+          proxy_pass http://$backend_host:5000;
+        }
+
         location /mc-service/ {
             resolver 127.0.0.11 valid=30s;
             set $backend_host mcserver;