diff --git a/frontend/createStatic.py b/frontend/createStatic.py
index b3f390ed668049bb3fd6fa4e7bd8ac7f600f01db..3c332375196d4d0eeaf344126f7325d626b24393 100644
--- a/frontend/createStatic.py
+++ b/frontend/createStatic.py
@@ -2,7 +2,10 @@ from jinja2 import Environment, FileSystemLoader
 import os
 import shutil
 
-def render_template_to_site():
+API_URL_ENV_VARNAME = "DATACATALOG_API_URL"
+API_URL_DEFAULT_VALUE = "http://localhost:8000/"
+
+def render_template_to_site(api_url=API_URL_DEFAULT_VALUE):
     ## copy javascript files to site folder
     src_files = os.listdir('frontend/js')
     dest = 'site/js'
@@ -23,6 +26,16 @@ def render_template_to_site():
         if os.path.isfile(full_name):
             shutil.copy(full_name, dest)
 
+    ## replace {{API_URL}} tag with actual api url from env
+    apicalls_file_path = 'site/js/apicalls.js'
+    api_tag = '{{API_URL}}'
+    with open(apicalls_file_path, 'r') as file:
+        filedata = file.read()
+    filedata = filedata.replace(api_tag, api_url)
+    with open(apicalls_file_path, 'w') as file:
+        file.write(filedata)
+
+
     ## render templates to site folder
     file_loader = FileSystemLoader('frontend/templates')
     env = Environment(loader=file_loader)
@@ -52,4 +65,7 @@ def render_template_to_site():
             f.write(html[file])
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":
-    render_template_to_site()
\ No newline at end of file
+    # if env variable is set, get api url from it, else use default
+    api_url = os.getenv(API_URL_ENV_VARNAME, API_URL_DEFAULT_VALUE)
+    # TODO if argument is there, set api url
+    render_template_to_site(api_url)
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/frontend/js/apicalls.js b/frontend/js/apicalls.js
index 1d1e3c4e4ce1cbacdbfee2a74bff877d95f3c31b..57872fc8bff43364a7296354a62422828de7b7b9 100644
--- a/frontend/js/apicalls.js
+++ b/frontend/js/apicalls.js
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 // This file contains the api calls, as well as transform the data into html-text
-var apiUrl = "http://zam024.fritz.box/api/"; // TODO switch out with real url, ideally during deployment
+var apiUrl = "{{API_URL}}";
 var allowedTypesList = [];
 
 // get data from url query variables