diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index 95130fdd4a..57ba0aa5e4 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -8,6 +8,13 @@ ENV LC_ALL=C.UTF-8
 ENV LANG=C.UTF-8
 ENV PIP=pip
 
+ENV MAMBA_EXE=/usr/local/bin/conda
+ENV MAMBA_ROOT_PREFIX=/conda
+ENV PATH=$MAMBA_ROOT_PREFIX/bin:$PATH
+ENV CONDA_EXE=$MAMBA_EXE
+ENV CONDA_PREFIX=$MAMBA_ROOT_PREFIX
+ENV CONDA_SHLVL='1'
+
 WORKDIR /build-ocrd
 
 COPY src ./src
@@ -21,11 +28,8 @@ COPY LICENSE .
 COPY .git ./.git
 
 RUN echo 'APT::Install-Recommends "0"; APT::Install-Suggests "0";' >/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/ocr-d.conf
-RUN apt-get update && apt-get -y install software-properties-common \
-    && apt-get update && apt-get -y install \
+RUN apt-get update && apt-get -y install \
         ca-certificates \
-        python3-dev \
-        python3-venv \
         gcc \
         make \
         wget \
@@ -33,15 +37,16 @@ RUN apt-get update && apt-get -y install software-properties-common \
         curl \
         sudo \
         git \
-    && make deps-ubuntu
-RUN python3 -m venv /usr/local \
+    && make get-conda \
+    && make deps-conda \
+    && python3 -m venv /usr/local \
     && hash -r \
     && make install \
     && eval $FIXUP
 
 WORKDIR /data
 
-CMD ["/usr/local/bin/ocrd", "--help"]
+CMD ["/conda/bin/ocrd", "--help"]
 
 FROM ocrd_core_base as ocrd_core_test
 WORKDIR /build-ocrd
@@ -54,4 +59,4 @@ RUN pip install -r requirements_test.txt
 RUN mkdir /ocrd-data && chmod 777 /ocrd-data
 
 CMD ["yes"]
-# CMD ["make", "test", "integration-test"]
+# CMD ["make", "test", "integration-test"]
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/Dockerfile.cuda b/Dockerfile.cuda
index 89db9603cf..43dd05a7b3 100644
--- a/Dockerfile.cuda
+++ b/Dockerfile.cuda
@@ -1,13 +1,6 @@
 ARG BASE_IMAGE
 FROM $BASE_IMAGE AS ocrd_core_base
 
-ENV MAMBA_EXE=/usr/local/bin/conda
-ENV MAMBA_ROOT_PREFIX=/conda
-ENV PATH=$MAMBA_ROOT_PREFIX/bin:$PATH
-ENV CONDA_EXE=$MAMBA_EXE
-ENV CONDA_PREFIX=$MAMBA_ROOT_PREFIX
-ENV CONDA_SHLVL='1'
-
 WORKDIR /build
 
 COPY Makefile .
@@ -18,5 +11,5 @@ WORKDIR /data
 
 RUN rm -fr /build
 
-CMD ["/usr/local/bin/ocrd", "--help"]
+CMD ["/conda/bin/ocrd", "--help"]
 
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 5b83d1a173..f594f8404a 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -22,6 +22,8 @@ help:
 	@echo ""
 	@echo "  Targets"
 	@echo ""
+	@echo "    get-conda      Install Conda distribution"
+	@echo "    deps-conda     Dependencies for deployment via Conda"
 	@echo "    deps-cuda      Dependencies for deployment with GPU support via Conda"
 	@echo "    deps-ubuntu    Dependencies for deployment in an Ubuntu/Debian Linux"
 	@echo "    deps-test      Install test python deps via pip"
@@ -59,11 +61,21 @@ PIP_INSTALL_CONFIG_OPTION ?=
 
 .PHONY: deps-cuda deps-ubuntu deps-test
 
-deps-cuda: CONDA_EXE ?= /usr/local/bin/conda
-deps-cuda: export CONDA_PREFIX ?= /conda
-deps-cuda: PYTHON_PREFIX != $(PYTHON) -c 'import sysconfig; print(sysconfig.get_paths()["purelib"])'
-deps-cuda:
-	curl -Ls https://micro.mamba.pm/api/micromamba/linux-64/latest | tar -xvj bin/micromamba
+.PHONY: get-conda deps-cuda deps-conda deps-ubuntu
+
+ifeq ($(shell command -v conda),)
+# no prior Conda distribution, so install Mamba now
+# (see https://mamba.readthedocs.io/en/latest/installation.html)
+get-conda: CONDA_EXE ?= /usr/local/bin/conda
+get-conda: export CONDA_PREFIX ?= /conda
+# first part of recipe: see micro.mamba.pm/install.sh
+get-conda: OS != uname
+get-conda: PLATFORM = $(subst Darwin,osx,$(subst Linux,linux,$(OS)))
+get-conda: ARCH != uname -m
+get-conda: MACHINE = $(or $(filter aarch64 arm64 ppc64le, $(ARCH)), 64)
+get-conda: URL = https://micro.mamba.pm/api/micromamba/$(PLATFORM)-$(MACHINE)/latest
+get-conda:
+	curl -Ls $(URL) | tar -xvj bin/micromamba
 	mv bin/micromamba $(CONDA_EXE)
 # Install Conda system-wide (for interactive / login shells)
 	echo 'export MAMBA_EXE=$(CONDA_EXE) MAMBA_ROOT_PREFIX=$(CONDA_PREFIX) CONDA_PREFIX=$(CONDA_PREFIX) PATH=$(CONDA_PREFIX)/bin:$$PATH' >> /etc/profile.d/98-conda.sh
@@ -71,6 +83,12 @@ deps-cuda:
 	echo 'export XLA_FLAGS=--xla_gpu_cuda_data_dir=$(CONDA_PREFIX)/' >> /etc/profile.d/98-conda.sh
 	mkdir -p $(CONDA_PREFIX)/lib $(CONDA_PREFIX)/include
 	echo $(CONDA_PREFIX)/lib >> /etc/ld.so.conf.d/conda.conf
+else
+get-conda: ;
+endif
+
+deps-cuda: PYTHON_PREFIX != $(PYTHON) -c 'import sysconfig; print(sysconfig.get_paths()["purelib"])'
+deps-cuda: get-conda
 # Get CUDA toolkit, including compiler and libraries with dev,
 # however, the Nvidia channels do not provide (recent) cudnn (needed for Torch, TF etc):
 #MAMBA_ROOT_PREFIX=$(CONDA_PREFIX) \
@@ -79,7 +97,6 @@ deps-cuda:
 # The conda-forge channel has cudnn and cudatoolkit but no cudatoolkit-dev anymore (and we need both!),
 # so let's combine nvidia and conda-forge (will be same lib versions, no waste of space),
 # but omitting cuda-cudart-dev and cuda-libraries-dev (as these will be pulled by pip for torch anyway):
-	MAMBA_ROOT_PREFIX=$(CONDA_PREFIX) \
 	conda install -c nvidia/label/cuda-11.8.0 \
 	                 cuda-nvcc \
 	                 cuda-cccl \
@@ -115,10 +132,16 @@ deps-cuda:
 	 && ldconfig
 # gputil/nvidia-smi would be nice, too – but that drags in Python as a conda dependency...
 
-# Dependencies for deployment in an ubuntu/debian linux
+# Dependencies for deployment via Conda
+deps-conda: get-conda
+	conda install -c conda-forge python==3.8.* imagemagick geos pkgconfig
+
+# Dependencies for deployment in an Ubuntu/Debian Linux
 deps-ubuntu:
 	apt-get install -y python3 imagemagick libgeos-dev
 
+.PHONY: deps-test install install-dev uninstall
+
 # Install test python deps via pip
 deps-test:
 	$(PIP) install -U pip