diff --git a/nomad/config.py b/nomad/config.py
index 742d984d068803d378eb3639edbf43dfe53191c7..1b92c5a5c2ddc064c888e5665b4a7dd1e51649a7 100644
--- a/nomad/config.py
+++ b/nomad/config.py
@@ -85,3 +85,5 @@ services = NomadServicesConfig(
     api_base_path=os.environ.get('NOMAD_API_BASE_PATH', '/nomad/api'),
     api_secret=os.environ.get('NOMAD_API_SECRET', 'defaultApiSecret')
 )
+
+console_log_level = getattr(logging, os.environ.get('NOMAD_CONSOLE_LOGLEVEL', 'INFO'), 'INFO')
diff --git a/nomad/processing/base.py b/nomad/processing/base.py
index a03e15bc3a45da8ea6c3672b8244eb106ee69bc7..59ad1e351c8dcac52050b4ad9010e33638e6dde1 100644
--- a/nomad/processing/base.py
+++ b/nomad/processing/base.py
@@ -39,11 +39,12 @@ if config.logstash.enabled:
 
 @worker_process_init.connect
 def setup(**kwargs):
+    utils.get_logger(__name__).debug('test debug log entry')
     infrastructure.setup()
 
 
 app = Celery('nomad.processing', broker=config.celery.broker_url)
-
+app.conf.update(worker_hijack_root_logger=False)
 
 PENDING = 'PENDING'
 RUNNING = 'RUNNING'
diff --git a/nomad/utils.py b/nomad/utils.py
index fa48143ae9fe482007950cad561ff1aad90da07e..d83335bef270dc9e7266e13fe725e47e2224b21b 100644
--- a/nomad/utils.py
+++ b/nomad/utils.py
@@ -116,10 +116,10 @@ if not _logging_is_configured:
         wrapper_class=structlog.stdlib.BoundLogger)
 
     # configure logging in general
-    logging.basicConfig(level=logging.DEBUG, stream=sys.stdout)
+    logging.basicConfig(stream=sys.stdout)
     root = logging.getLogger()
     for handler in root.handlers:
-        handler.setLevel(logging.WARNING if 'pytest' not in sys.modules else logging.CRITICAL)
+        handler.setLevel(config.console_log_level if 'pytest' not in sys.modules else logging.CRITICAL)
 
     # configure logstash
     if config.logstash.enabled and 'pytest' not in sys.modules: