diff --git a/application/controllers/AuthenticationController.php b/application/controllers/AuthenticationController.php
index 8838b61ae..959da8b0b 100644
--- a/application/controllers/AuthenticationController.php
+++ b/application/controllers/AuthenticationController.php
@@ -85,10 +85,16 @@ class AuthenticationController extends ActionController
      */
     public function logoutAction()
     {
-        $this->_helper->layout->setLayout('inline');
         $auth = AuthManager::getInstance();
         $auth->removeAuthorization();
-        $this->redirectToLogin();
+
+        if ($auth->isAuthenticatedFromRemoteUser()) {
+            $this->_helper->layout->setLayout('login');
+            $this->_response->setHttpResponseCode(401);
+        } else {
+            $this->_helper->layout->setLayout('inline');
+            $this->redirectToLogin();
+        }
     }
 }
 // @codingStandardsIgnoreEnd
diff --git a/application/views/scripts/authentication/login.phtml b/application/views/scripts/authentication/login.phtml
index cfa81a9a1..33a9f021c 100644
--- a/application/views/scripts/authentication/login.phtml
+++ b/application/views/scripts/authentication/login.phtml
@@ -23,8 +23,6 @@
      * is useful for preserving the detail view and the selection in that case.
      *
      * refs #4833
-     *
-     * TODO: Copy this snipped into the new login.phtml
      */
     var url = document.URL.match(/(^[^#]*)/)[0] + encodeURIComponent(window.location.hash);
     document.getElementById('form_login').action = url;
diff --git a/application/views/scripts/authentication/logout.phtml b/application/views/scripts/authentication/logout.phtml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..eb0d6dc44
--- /dev/null
+++ b/application/views/scripts/authentication/logout.phtml
@@ -0,0 +1,72 @@
+<!--
+    This view provides a workaround to logout from an external authentication provider, in case external
+    authentication was configured (the default is to handle authentications internally in Icingaweb2).
+
+    The <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2617">Http Basic and Digest Authentication</a> is not
+    designed to handle logout. When the user has provided valid credentials, the client is adviced to include these
+    in every further request until the browser was closed. To allow logout and to allow the user to change the
+    logged-in user this JavaScript provides a workaround to force a new authentication prompt in most browsers.
+-->
+
+<div class="row">
+  <br/>
+  <div class="md-offset-3 col-md-6 col-sm-6 col-sm-offset-3">
+    <div class="alert alert-warning" id="logout-status">
+        <b> <?= t('Logging out...'); ?> </b> <br />
+        <?= t(
+            'If this message does not disappear, it might be necessary to quit the ' .
+            'current session manually by clearing the cache, or by closing the current ' .
+            'browser session.'
+        ); ?>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="row">
+  <div class="col-md-4 col-md-offset-4 col-sm-6 col-sm-offset-3">
+    <div class="container" >
+        <a class="button btn btn-cta form-control input-sm" href="<?= $this->href('dashboard/index'); ?>"> <?= t('Login'); ?></a>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<script type="text/javascript">
+
+    /**
+     * When JavaScript is available, trigger an XmlHTTPRequest with the non-existing user 'logout' and abort it
+     * before it is able to finish. This will cause the browser to show a new authentication prompt in the next
+     * request.
+     */
+    window.onload = function () {
+        function getXMLHttpRequest() {
+            var xmlhttp = null;
+            try {
+                if (window.XMLHttpRequest) {
+                    xmlhttp = new XMLHttpRequest();
+                } else if (window.ActiveXObject) {
+                    xmlhttp = new ActiveXObject('Microsoft.XMLHTTP');
+                }
+            } catch (e) {}
+            return xmlhttp;
+        }
+        var msg = document.getElementById('logout-status');
+        try {
+            if (navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase().indexOf('msie') !== -1) {
+                document.execCommand('ClearAuthenticationCache');
+            } else {
+                var xhttp = getXMLHttpRequest();
+                xhttp.open('GET', 'arbitrary url', true, 'logout', 'logout');
+                xhttp.send('');
+                xhttp.abort();
+            }
+        } catch (e) {
+            msg.innerHTML = '<?= t(
+                'Logout not possible, it may be necessary to quit the session manually ' .
+                'by clearing the cache, or closing the current browser session. Error: '
+            );?>' + ': ' + e.getMessage() ;
+            msg.setAttribute('class', 'alert alert-danger');
+        }
+        msg.innerHTML = '<?= t('Logout successful!'); ?>';
+        msg.setAttribute('class', 'alert alert-success');
+    };
+</script>
diff --git a/config/config.ini.in b/config/config.ini.in
index 4b57a23b4..9c6b8d10c 100755
--- a/config/config.ini.in
+++ b/config/config.ini.in
@@ -14,6 +14,10 @@ moduleFolder        = "@icingaweb_config_path@/enabledModules"
 ; won't show up in the list of disabled modules.
 ; modulePath          = "/vagrant/modules:/usr/share/icingaweb/modules"
 
+; The used authentication-mode can be either "internal" to handle the authentication in IcingaWeb
+; or "external" to delegate the authentication to the used WebServer
+authenticationMode  = "internal"
+
 [logging]
 enable              = true
 ; Writing to a Stream
diff --git a/doc/external_authentication.md b/doc/external_authentication.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..240713038
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/external_authentication.md
@@ -0,0 +1,90 @@
+# Externel Authentication
+
+It is possible to use the authentication mechanism of the webserver, 
+instead of using the internal authentication-manager to
+authenticate users. This might be useful if you only have very few users, and
+user management over *.htaccess* is sufficient, or if you must use some other
+authentication mechanism that is only available through your webserver.
+
+When external authentication is used, Icingaweb will entrust the 
+complete authentication process to the external authentication provider (the webserver):
+The provider should take care of authenticating the user and declining
+all requests with invalid or missing credentials. When the authentication 
+was succesful, it should provide the authenticated users name to its php-module
+and Icingaweb will assume that the user is authorized to access the page.
+Because of this it is very important that the webservers authentication is
+configured correctly, as wrong configuration could lead to unauthorized
+access to the site, or a broken login-process. 
+
+
+## Use External Authentication
+
+Using external authentication in Icingaweb requires two steps to work:
+
+1. The external authentication must be set up correctly to always
+   authenticate the users.
+2. Icingaweb must be configured to use the external authentication.
+
+
+### Prepare the External Authentication Provider
+
+This step depends heavily on the used webserver and authentication 
+mechanism you want to use. It is not possible to cover all possibillities 
+and you should probably read the documentation for your webserver for
+detailed instructions on how to set up authentication properly.
+
+In general, you need to make sure that:
+
+	- All routes require authentication
+	- Only permitted users are allowed to authenticate
+
+
+#### Example Configuration for Apache and HTTPDigestAuthentication
+
+The following example will show how to enable external authentication in Apache using
+*HTTP Digest Authentication*.
+
+##### Create users
+
+To create users for a digest authentication we can use the tool *htdigest*.
+We choose *.icingawebdigest* as a name for the created file, containing
+the user credentials.
+
+This command will create a new file with the user *jdoe*. *htdigest* 
+will prompt you for your password, after it has been executed. If you 
+want to add more users to the file you need to ommit the *-c* parameter 
+in all further commands to avoInid the file to be overwritten.
+
+
+		sudo htdigest -c /etc/httpd/conf.d/.icingawebdigest "Icingaweb 2" jdoe
+
+
+##### Set up authentication
+
+The webserver should require authentication for all public icingaweb files.
+
+
+		<Directory "/var/www/html/icingaweb">
+			AuthType digest
+			AuthName "Icingaweb 2"
+			AuthDigestProvider file
+			AuthUserFile /etc/httpd/conf.d/.icingawebdigest
+			Require valid-user
+		</Directory>		
+
+		
+### Prepare Icingaweb
+
+When the external authentication is set up correctly, we need
+to configure IcingaWeb to use it as an authentication source. The
+configuration key *authenticationMode* in the section *global* defines
+if the authentication should be handled internally or externally. Since
+we want to delegate the authentication to the Webserver we choose 
+"external" as the new value:
+
+
+		[global]
+		; ...
+		authenticationMode = "external"
+		; ...
+		
diff --git a/library/Icinga/Application/Web.php b/library/Icinga/Application/Web.php
index 470f3e54a..a334d36c3 100644
--- a/library/Icinga/Application/Web.php
+++ b/library/Icinga/Application/Web.php
@@ -230,6 +230,11 @@ class Web extends ApplicationBootstrap
     {
         $authenticationManager = AuthenticationManager::getInstance();
 
+
+        if ($this->getConfig()->get('global')->get('authenticationMode', 'internal') === 'external') {
+            $authenticationManager->authenticateFromRemoteUser();
+        }
+
         if ($authenticationManager->isAuthenticated() === true) {
             $user = $authenticationManager->getUser();
 
diff --git a/library/Icinga/Authentication/Manager.php b/library/Icinga/Authentication/Manager.php
index 6307211a1..a818c6081 100644
--- a/library/Icinga/Authentication/Manager.php
+++ b/library/Icinga/Authentication/Manager.php
@@ -52,6 +52,7 @@ use Icinga\Authentication\Backend\LdapUserBackend;
  **/
 class Manager
 {
+
     /**
      * Singleton instance
      *
@@ -59,6 +60,13 @@ class Manager
      */
     private static $instance;
 
+    /**
+     * If the user was authenticated from the REMOTE_USER server variable
+     *
+     * @var Boolean
+     */
+    private $fromRemoteUser = false;
+
     /**
      * Instance of authenticated user
      *
@@ -387,6 +395,27 @@ class Manager
         $this->user = Session::getSession()->get('user');
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Tries to authenticate the user from the session, and then from the REMOTE_USER superglobal, that can be set by
+     * an external authentication provider.
+     */
+    public function authenticateFromRemoteUser()
+    {
+        $this->fromRemoteUser = true;
+        $this->authenticateFromSession();
+        if ($this->user !== null) {
+            if (array_key_exists('REMOTE_USER', $_SERVER) && $this->user->getUsername() !== $_SERVER["REMOTE_USER"]) {
+                // Remote user has changed, clear all sessions
+                $this->removeAuthorization();
+            }
+            return;
+        }
+        if (array_key_exists('REMOTE_USER', $_SERVER) && $_SERVER["REMOTE_USER"]) {
+            $this->user = new User($_SERVER["REMOTE_USER"]);
+            $this->persistCurrentUser();
+        }
+    }
+
     /**
      * Returns true when the user is currently authenticated
      *
@@ -472,4 +501,12 @@ class Manager
     {
         return $this->user->getGroups();
     }
+
+    /**
+     * If the session was established from the REMOTE_USER server variable.
+     */
+    public function isAuthenticatedFromRemoteUser()
+    {
+        return $this->fromRemoteUser;
+    }
 }
diff --git a/library/Icinga/Web/Widget/Chart/PieChart.php b/library/Icinga/Web/Widget/Chart/PieChart.php
index 0e4547135..edc4e78fe 100644
--- a/library/Icinga/Web/Widget/Chart/PieChart.php
+++ b/library/Icinga/Web/Widget/Chart/PieChart.php
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ class PieChart implements Widget
      */
     private $template =<<<'EOD'
 
-    <div data-icinga-component="app/piechart">
+    <div>
         <img class='inlinepie' src="{url}" width={width} height={height}> </img>
     </div>
 EOD;