diff --git a/makefile b/makefile
index 79f2a3bc0a9c7e0481b472232c0a45dd6700f8e1..460ecbeedcf2c9b03e5a03c7d00f05240ac0098e 100644
--- a/makefile
+++ b/makefile
@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ ifneq (0, $(CPPUNIT_EXISTS))
 $(error You need cppunit installed)
 endif
 
-LIBXML2_EXISTS = $(shell $(CXX) -o /dev/null -I/usr/include/libxml2/ -lxml2 -xc++ - <<< $$'\#include <libxml/xmlreader.h>\nint main() {\nreturn 0;\n}'; echo $$?)
+LIBXML2_EXISTS = $(shell $(CXX) -o /dev/null -I/usr/include/libxml2/ -lxml2 -xc++ -std=c++11 - <<< $$'\#include <libxml/xmlreader.h>\nint main() {\nreturn 0;\n}'; echo $$?)
 ifneq (0, $(LIBXML2_EXISTS))
 $(error You need libxml2 installed)
 endif