diff --git a/doc/ver.xml b/doc/ver.xml
index 9aad6d6..581bca2 100644
--- a/doc/ver.xml
+++ b/doc/ver.xml
@@ -11,6 +11,9 @@
 <li> Fixed exception when an unknown class dependency is specified.
 (Reported by Jan Schl&#252;ter).
 </li>
+<li> Corrected NullPointerException occurring when no global options were
+available.
+(Fix supplied by Bernd Blacha.)
 </dd>
 
 <dt>Version 5.1 2008-08-27 </dt><dd>
diff --git a/src/org/umlgraph/doclet/UmlGraph.java b/src/org/umlgraph/doclet/UmlGraph.java
index 704c2fc..16d7595 100644
--- a/src/org/umlgraph/doclet/UmlGraph.java
+++ b/src/org/umlgraph/doclet/UmlGraph.java
@@ -106,6 +106,8 @@ public class UmlGraph {
      * Builds and outputs a single graph according to the view overrides
      */
     public static void buildGraph(RootDoc root, OptionProvider op, Doc contextDoc) throws IOException {
+	if(getCommentOptions() == null)
+	    buildOptions(root);
 	Options opt = op.getGlobalOptions();
 	root.printNotice("Building " + op.getDisplayName());
 	ClassDoc[] classes = root.classes();