diff --git a/jsprit-core/src/main/java/algorithms/SchrimpfFactory.java b/jsprit-core/src/main/java/algorithms/SchrimpfFactory.java
index 3142c4f4..c8363f73 100644
--- a/jsprit-core/src/main/java/algorithms/SchrimpfFactory.java
+++ b/jsprit-core/src/main/java/algorithms/SchrimpfFactory.java
@@ -20,8 +20,14 @@
  ******************************************************************************/
 package algorithms;
 
+import java.io.File;
+import java.net.MalformedURLException;
 import java.net.URL;
 
+import util.Resource;
+
+
+
 import basics.VehicleRoutingAlgorithm;
 import basics.VehicleRoutingProblem;
 import basics.io.AlgorithmConfig;
@@ -57,9 +63,11 @@ public class SchrimpfFactory {
 	 */
 	public VehicleRoutingAlgorithm createAlgorithm(VehicleRoutingProblem vrp){
 		AlgorithmConfig algorithmConfig = new AlgorithmConfig();
-		URL resource = this.getClass().getClassLoader().getResource("schrimpf.xml");
+		URL resource = Resource.getAsURL("schrimpf.xml");
 		new AlgorithmConfigXmlReader(algorithmConfig).read(resource.getPath());
 		return VehicleRoutingAlgorithms.createAlgorithm(vrp, algorithmConfig);
 	}
+	
+	
 
 }
diff --git a/jsprit-core/src/main/java/algorithms/acceptors/SchrimpfAcceptance.java b/jsprit-core/src/main/java/algorithms/acceptors/SchrimpfAcceptance.java
index 380d63d3..4a6035f6 100644
--- a/jsprit-core/src/main/java/algorithms/acceptors/SchrimpfAcceptance.java
+++ b/jsprit-core/src/main/java/algorithms/acceptors/SchrimpfAcceptance.java
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ import java.util.Collection;
 import org.apache.commons.math.stat.descriptive.moment.StandardDeviation;
 import org.apache.log4j.Logger;
 
+import util.Resource;
 import util.Solutions;
 import algorithms.VehicleRoutingAlgorithms;
 import basics.VehicleRoutingAlgorithm;
@@ -115,7 +116,7 @@ public class SchrimpfAcceptance implements SolutionAcceptor, IterationStartsList
 		 */
 		final double[] results = new double[nOfRandomWalks];
 		
-		URL resource = this.getClass().getClassLoader().getResource("randomWalk.xml");
+		URL resource = Resource.getAsURL("randomWalk.xml");
 		AlgorithmConfig algorithmConfig = new AlgorithmConfig();
 		new AlgorithmConfigXmlReader(algorithmConfig).read(resource.getPath());
 		VehicleRoutingAlgorithm vra = VehicleRoutingAlgorithms.createAlgorithm(problem, algorithmConfig);
diff --git a/jsprit-core/src/main/java/basics/io/AlgorithmConfigXmlReader.java b/jsprit-core/src/main/java/basics/io/AlgorithmConfigXmlReader.java
index c2479641..e2c1ce96 100644
--- a/jsprit-core/src/main/java/basics/io/AlgorithmConfigXmlReader.java
+++ b/jsprit-core/src/main/java/basics/io/AlgorithmConfigXmlReader.java
@@ -29,6 +29,8 @@ import org.xml.sax.EntityResolver;
 import org.xml.sax.InputSource;
 import org.xml.sax.SAXException;
 
+import util.Resource;
+
 public class AlgorithmConfigXmlReader {
 	
 	private static Logger log = Logger.getLogger(AlgorithmConfigXmlReader.class);
@@ -55,7 +57,7 @@ public class AlgorithmConfigXmlReader {
 		algorithmConfig.getXMLConfiguration().setDelimiterParsingDisabled(true);
 		
 		if(schemaValidation){
-			final URL resource = this.getClass().getClassLoader().getResource("algorithm_schema.xsd");
+			final URL resource = Resource.getAsURL("algorithm_schema.xsd");
 			if(resource != null) {
 				EntityResolver resolver = new EntityResolver() {
 
diff --git a/jsprit-core/src/main/java/basics/io/VrpXMLReader.java b/jsprit-core/src/main/java/basics/io/VrpXMLReader.java
index 0b0262a8..d4b43110 100644
--- a/jsprit-core/src/main/java/basics/io/VrpXMLReader.java
+++ b/jsprit-core/src/main/java/basics/io/VrpXMLReader.java
@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@ import org.xml.sax.InputSource;
 import org.xml.sax.SAXException;
 
 import util.Coordinate;
+import util.Resource;
 import basics.Service;
 import basics.VehicleRoutingProblem;
 import basics.VehicleRoutingProblem.FleetComposition;
@@ -97,7 +98,7 @@ public class VrpXMLReader{
 		xmlConfig.setDelimiterParsingDisabled(true);
 		
 		if(schemaValidation){
-			final URL resource = this.getClass().getClassLoader().getResource("vrp_xml_schema.xsd");
+			final URL resource = Resource.getAsURL("vrp_xml_schema.xsd");
 			if(resource != null) {
 				EntityResolver resolver = new EntityResolver() {
 
diff --git a/jsprit-core/src/main/java/util/Resource.java b/jsprit-core/src/main/java/util/Resource.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..2d3ab1df
--- /dev/null
+++ b/jsprit-core/src/main/java/util/Resource.java
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+package util;
+
+import java.io.File;
+import java.net.MalformedURLException;
+import java.net.URL;
+
+import org.apache.log4j.Logger;
+
+import algorithms.SchrimpfFactory;
+
+/**
+ * This is a copy of MatsimResource.java (see matsim.org).
+ * 
+ * It makes sure that resources can also be located within jar files, since it looks for resources in several places.
+ * 
+ * @author stefan schroeder
+ *
+ */
+public class Resource {
+	
+	private static Logger log = Logger.getLogger(Resource.class);
+	
+	/**
+	 * Returns URL from the relative path of a resource.
+	 * 
+	 * @param filename
+	 * @return
+	 */
+	public final static URL getAsURL(final String filename) {
+		// look for the file locally
+		File file = new File("/" + filename);
+		if (file.exists()) {
+			try {
+				return file.toURI().toURL();
+			} catch (MalformedURLException e) {
+				log.warn("Found resource-file, but could not return URL for it.", e);				// just continue, maybe we have more luck in the classpath
+			}
+		}
+		// maybe we find the file in the classpath, possibly inside a jar-file
+		URL url = SchrimpfFactory.class.getResource("/" + filename);
+		if (url == null) {
+			log.warn("Resource '" + filename + "' not found!");
+		}
+		return url;
+	}
+
+}
diff --git a/jsprit-core/src/test/java/algorithms/TestSchrimpf.java b/jsprit-core/src/test/java/algorithms/TestSchrimpf.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..5e0a3fcf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/jsprit-core/src/test/java/algorithms/TestSchrimpf.java
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+package algorithms;
+
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+import basics.VehicleRoutingAlgorithm;
+import basics.VehicleRoutingProblem;
+
+public class TestSchrimpf {
+	
+	@Test
+	public void whenUsingSchrimpfFactory_itFindsTheConfig(){
+		
+		VehicleRoutingAlgorithm vra = new SchrimpfFactory().createAlgorithm(VehicleRoutingProblem.newBuilderInstance().build());
+		
+	}
+
+}