diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 23c3e64f91bb9bf12593d8855c0910a8f9daf556..2559698eb5a8f4c21626fcc85b2b17ad12a45da0 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -173,6 +173,10 @@ deploy_app-dev:
   environment:
     name: ahikar-dev
   script:
+    - header=$(curl --head -s https://ahikar-dev.sub.uni-goettingen.de/api/deploy)
+    - status=$(echo $header | head -n 1 | cut -d" " -f 2)
+    - echo "Current HTTP status is $status."
+    - if [[ "$status" != "200" ]]; then exit 1; fi
     - curl --get --silent https://ahikar-dev.sub.uni-goettingen.de/api/deploy
 
 deploy_app-main:
@@ -184,6 +188,10 @@ deploy_app-main:
   environment:
     name: ahikar
   script:
+    - header=$(curl --head -s https://ahikar.sub.uni-goettingen.de/api/deploy)
+    - status=$(echo $header | head -n 1 | cut -d" " -f 2)
+    - echo "Current HTTP status is $status."
+    - if [[ "$status" != "200" ]]; then exit 1; fi
     - curl --get --silent https://ahikar.sub.uni-goettingen.de/api/deploy
 
 # when a git flow release is made, a tag will be pushed starting this job. it
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 53fe45c4e5f9c5eb2d6c30dd4f3be08ba690d5fe..a6fcff3b7156185342c2bd187c37cb3514f648dc 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -5,6 +5,11 @@ All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.
 The format is based on [Keep a Changelog](https://keepachangelog.com/en/1.0.0/),
 and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0.html).
 
+## [2.5.2] - 2021-01-25
+
+### Changed
+
+- added API health check for deploy API
 
 ## [2.5.1] - 2021-01-22
 
diff --git a/exist-app/build.properties b/exist-app/build.properties
index c3507f36b00f3a55452b36051d77e956d41c17bc..e53686258d29f87014d87469ad4deb63ece76673 100644
--- a/exist-app/build.properties
+++ b/exist-app/build.properties
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 project.name=https://ahikar-test.sub.uni-goettingen.de/
-project.version=2.5.1
+project.version=2.5.2
 project.title=Ahiqar
 project.abbrev=ahikar-test
 project.processorversion=5.2.0