diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..1fd4b5da0ce
--- /dev/null
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+espresso (4.1.5~rc1) unstable; urgency=medium
+
+  * Initial release
+
+ -- Evangelos Ribeiro Tzaras <devrtz@fortysixandtwo.eu>  Sun, 28 Mar 2021 17:15:36 +0200
diff --git a/debian/control b/debian/control
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..6c7fdea0f0c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/debian/control
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+Source: espresso
+Section: science
+Priority: optional
+Maintainer: Espresso Maintainers <espressomd-devel@nongnu.org>
+Build-Depends: debhelper-compat (=13),
+               cmake,
+               cython3,
+               python3,
+               python3-numpy,
+               libboost-all-dev,
+               openmpi-common,
+               fftw3-dev,
+               libhdf5-dev,
+               libhdf5-openmpi-dev,
+               python3-opengl,
+               libgsl-dev
+Rules-Requires-Root: no
+Standards-Version: 4.5.0
+Vcs-Browser: https://github.com/espressomd/espresso
+Vcs-Git: https://github.com/espressomd/espresso.git
+Homepage: https://espressomd.org
+
+Package: espresso
+Architecture: any
+Depends: python3,
+         python3-numpy,
+         python3-scipy,
+         python3-h5py,
+         python3-vtk7,
+         ${misc:Depends}
+Description: Molecular dynamics simulation package
+ ESPResSo is a highly versatile software package for performing
+ and analyzing scientific Molecular Dynamics many-particle 
+ simulations of coarse-grained atomistic or bead-spring models
+ as they are used in soft matter research in physics, chemistry
+ and molecular biology.
diff --git a/debian/copyright b/debian/copyright
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..35860ce7929
--- /dev/null
+++ b/debian/copyright
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+Format: https://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/
+Upstream-Name: espresso
+Upstream-Contact: Espresso mailing list <espressomd-devel@nongnu.org>
+Source: https://github.com/espressomd/espresso.git
+License: GPL-3
+
+Files: *
+Copyright: 2010-2021 The ESPResSo project
+           2002-2010 Max-Planck-Institute for Polymer Research, Theory Group
+License: GPL-3
+
+
+License: GPL-3+
+ This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
+ the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software
+ Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later
+ version.
+ .
+ This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
+ ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS
+ FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License for more
+ details.
+ .
+ You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with
+ this package; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin
+ St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301 USA
+ .
+ On Debian systems, the full text of the GNU General Public License version 3
+ can be found in the file `/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL-3'.
+
diff --git a/debian/gbp.conf b/debian/gbp.conf
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..494f58dcfaf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/debian/gbp.conf
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+[DEFAULT]
+debian-branch = python
+debian-tag = v%(version)s
+debian-tag-msg = %(pkg)s v%(version)s
+
+[tag]
+sign-tags = true
+
+[dch]
+multimaint-merge = true
diff --git a/debian/rules b/debian/rules
new file mode 100755
index 00000000000..4550c050d60
--- /dev/null
+++ b/debian/rules
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+#!/usr/bin/make -f
+
+export DEB_BUILD_MAINT_OPTIONS= hardening=+all
+
+%:
+	dh $@
+
+
+override_dh_autotest:
+	true
diff --git a/debian/source/format b/debian/source/format
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..89ae9db8f88
--- /dev/null
+++ b/debian/source/format
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+3.0 (native)
diff --git a/debian/watch b/debian/watch
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..44e6b965d2a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/debian/watch
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+version=4
+opts=filenamemangle=s/.+\/v?(\d\S+)\.tar\.gz/espresso-$1\.tar\.gz/ \
+  https://github.com/espressomd/espresso/tags .*/v?(\d\S+)\.tar\.gz