diff --git a/app/app.c b/app/app.c
index e3c1336e29..3573d4e2ac 100644
--- a/app/app.c
+++ b/app/app.c
@@ -45,6 +45,8 @@
 
 #include "config/gimprc.h"
 
+#include "gegl/gimp-gegl.h"
+
 #include "core/gimp.h"
 #include "core/gimp-batch.h"
 #include "core/gimp-user-install.h"
@@ -252,6 +254,9 @@ app_run (const gchar         *full_prog_name,
   if (! update_status_func)
     update_status_func = app_init_update_noop;
 
+  /*  initialize lowlevel stuff  */
+  gimp_gegl_init (gimp);
+
   /*  Create all members of the global Gimp instance which need an already
    *  parsed gimprc, e.g. the data factories
    */
diff --git a/app/core/gimp.c b/app/core/gimp.c
index 4b73eea301..d34d572b45 100644
--- a/app/core/gimp.c
+++ b/app/core/gimp.c
@@ -30,7 +30,6 @@
 #include "config/gimprc.h"
 
 #include "gegl/gimp-babl.h"
-#include "gegl/gimp-gegl.h"
 
 #include "pdb/gimppdb.h"
 #include "pdb/gimp-pdb-compat.h"
@@ -587,10 +586,6 @@ gimp_real_initialize (Gimp               *gimp,
 
   status_callback (_("Initialization"), NULL, 0.0);
 
-  /*  initialize GEGL and babl  */
-  status_callback (NULL, "GEGL", 0.1);
-  gimp_gegl_init (gimp);
-
   gimp_fonts_set_config (gimp);
 
   /*  set the last values used to default values  */