diff --git a/recipes/settings.py b/recipes/settings.py
index 4326d27ffe..8d90244124 100644
--- a/recipes/settings.py
+++ b/recipes/settings.py
@@ -452,7 +452,7 @@
 
 if os.getenv('TIMEZONE') is not None:
     print('DEPRECATION WARNING: Environment var "TIMEZONE" is deprecated. Please use "TZ" instead.')
-    TIME_ZONE = bool(int(os.getenv('TIMEZONE')))
+    TIME_ZONE = os.getenv('TIMEZONE') if os.getenv('TIMEZONE') else 'Europe/Berlin'
 else:
     TIME_ZONE = os.getenv('TZ') if os.getenv('TZ') else 'Europe/Berlin'