diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/gettext/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/gettext/package.py
index 0a0b163a746..cf260c3f8ad 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/gettext/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/gettext/package.py
@@ -49,7 +49,6 @@ class Gettext(Package):
     depends_on('libxml2',  when='+libxml2')
     # Java runtime and compiler (e.g. GNU gcj or kaffe)
     # C# runtime and compiler (e.g. pnet or mono)
-    depends_on('git@1.6:', when='+git')
     depends_on('tar',      when='+tar')
     # depends_on('gzip',     when='+gzip')
     depends_on('bzip2',    when='+bzip2')
@@ -86,9 +85,6 @@ def install(self, spec, prefix):
         else:
             config_args.append('--with-included-libxml')
 
-        if '+git' not in spec:
-            config_args.append('--without-git')
-
         if '+bzip2' not in spec:
             config_args.append('--without-bzip2')