diff --git a/.java-version b/.java-version
index 3b5b5d8f..98d9bcb7 100644
--- a/.java-version
+++ b/.java-version
@@ -1 +1 @@
-11.0
\ No newline at end of file
+17
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index f8155df0..f6438677 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 
 ## TL;DR
 
-- Make sure you have Java 11 or higher installed
+- Make sure you have Java 17 or higher installed
 - Download and unpack the [latest release](https://code.host.antville.org/antville/helma/releases)
 - Invoke `./bin/helma`, resp. `./bin/helma.bat`, depending on your platform
 - Direct your web browser to <http://localhost:8080>
diff --git a/src/main/java/helma/main/Server.java b/src/main/java/helma/main/Server.java
index 88d70db7..d951adae 100644
--- a/src/main/java/helma/main/Server.java
+++ b/src/main/java/helma/main/Server.java
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@ import helma.framework.repository.FileResource;
 import helma.framework.core.*;
 import helma.objectmodel.db.DbSource;
 import helma.util.*;
+
 import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;
 import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;
 import org.apache.xmlrpc.*;
@@ -152,8 +153,8 @@ public class Server implements Runnable {
         String javaVersion = System.getProperty("java.version", "0");
         int majorVersion = Integer.parseInt(javaVersion.split("\\.")[0]);
 
-        if (majorVersion < 11) {
-            System.err.println("This version of Helma requires Java 11 or greater.");
+        if (majorVersion < 17) {
+            System.err.println("This version of Helma requires Java 17 or greater.");
 
             if (majorVersion == 0) { // don't think this will ever happen, but you never know
                 System.err.println("Your Java Runtime did not provide a version number. Please update to a more recent version.");