diff --git a/.github/scripts/pylint.rc b/.github/scripts/pylint.rc
index 4d1492c68..11841f3a5 100644
--- a/.github/scripts/pylint.rc
+++ b/.github/scripts/pylint.rc
@@ -349,4 +349,4 @@ analyse-fallback-blocks=no
 
 # Exceptions that will emit a warning when being caught. Defaults to
 # "Exception"
-overgeneral-exceptions=Exception
+overgeneral-exceptions=builtins.Exception
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index ea025973c..e2d019fed 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -65,8 +65,8 @@ spack*
 
 # Populated by cmake before build
 /include/podio/podioVersion.h
-/python/podio/__init__.py
+/python/podio/__version__.py
 
 # CLion artifacts
 .idea/
-cmake-build*/
\ No newline at end of file
+cmake-build*/
diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 4f4ad10ae..9dcbe88ae 100755
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -169,8 +169,8 @@ configure_file(${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/podioVersion.in.h
                ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/include/podio/podioVersion.h )
 install(FILES ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/include/podio/podioVersion.h
         DESTINATION ${CMAKE_INSTALL_INCLUDEDIR}/podio )
-configure_file(${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/python/__init__.py.in
-               ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/python/podio/__init__.py)
+configure_file(${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/python/__version__.py.in
+               ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/python/podio/__version__.py)
 
 #--- add license files ---------------------------------------------------------
 install(FILES ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/NOTICE
diff --git a/python/__init__.py.in b/python/__version__.py.in
similarity index 100%
rename from python/__init__.py.in
rename to python/__version__.py.in
diff --git a/python/podio/__init__.py b/python/podio/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..483885729
--- /dev/null
+++ b/python/podio/__init__.py
@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+"""Python module for the podio EDM toolkit and its utilities"""
+import sys
+
+from .__version__ import __version__
+
+from .podio_config_reader import *  # noqa: F403, F401
+
+import ROOT  # pylint: disable=wrong-import-order
+
+# Track whether we were able to dynamially load the library that is built by
+# podio and enable certain features of the bindings only if they are actually
+# available.
+_DYNAMIC_LIBS_LOADED = False
+
+# Check if we can locate the dictionary wthout loading it as this allows us to
+# silence any ouptput. If we can find it, we can also safely load it
+if ROOT.gSystem.DynamicPathName("libpodioDict.so", True):
+  ROOT.gSystem.Load("libpodioDict.so")
+  from ROOT import podio
+
+  _DYNAMIC_LIBS_LOADED = True
+
+if _DYNAMIC_LIBS_LOADED:
+  from .frame import Frame
+  from . import root_io, sio_io, reading
+
+  from . import EventStore
+
+  try:
+    # For some reason the test_utils only work at (test) runtime if they are
+    # imported with the rest of podio. Otherwise they produce a weird c++ error.
+    # This happens even if we import the *exact* same file.
+    from . import test_utils  # noqa: F401
+  except ImportError:
+    pass
+
+  # Make sure that this module is actually usable as podio even though most of
+  # it is dynamically populated by cppyy
+  sys.modules["podio"] = podio
+
+  __all__ = [
+      "__version__",
+      "Frame",
+      "root_io",
+      "sio_io",
+      "reading",
+      "EventStore"
+      ]
diff --git a/python/podio/frame.py b/python/podio/frame.py
index 1a69d7a46..f3185512d 100644
--- a/python/podio/frame.py
+++ b/python/podio/frame.py
@@ -5,9 +5,16 @@
 import cppyy
 
 import ROOT
+
 # NOTE: It is necessary that this can be found on the ROOT_INCLUDE_PATH
-ROOT.gInterpreter.LoadFile('podio/Frame.h')  # noqa: E402
-from ROOT import podio  # noqa: E402 # pylint: disable=wrong-import-position
+#
+# We check whether we can actually load the header to not break python bindings
+# in environments with *ancient* podio versions
+if ROOT.gInterpreter.LoadFile('podio/Frame.h') == 0:  # noqa: E402
+  from ROOT import podio  # noqa: E402 # pylint: disable=wrong-import-position
+  _FRAME_HEADER_AVAILABLE = True
+else:
+  _FRAME_HEADER_AVAILABLE = False
 
 
 def _determine_supported_parameter_types():
@@ -45,7 +52,8 @@ def _determine_cpp_type(idx_and_type):
   return tuple(zip(cpp_types, py_types))
 
 
-SUPPORTED_PARAMETER_TYPES = _determine_supported_parameter_types()
+if _FRAME_HEADER_AVAILABLE:
+  SUPPORTED_PARAMETER_TYPES = _determine_supported_parameter_types()
 
 
 def _get_cpp_types(type_str):
diff --git a/python/podio/test_EventStoreRoot.py b/python/podio/test_EventStoreRoot.py
index b9f3830dd..522e389d7 100644
--- a/python/podio/test_EventStoreRoot.py
+++ b/python/podio/test_EventStoreRoot.py
@@ -6,8 +6,9 @@
 
 from ROOT import TFile
 
+from test_EventStore import EventStoreBaseTestCaseMixin  # pylint: disable=import-error
+
 from podio.EventStore import EventStore
-from podio.test_EventStore import EventStoreBaseTestCaseMixin
 
 
 class EventStoreRootTestCase(EventStoreBaseTestCaseMixin, unittest.TestCase):
diff --git a/python/podio/test_EventStoreSio.py b/python/podio/test_EventStoreSio.py
index 511da07d8..c8d19b852 100644
--- a/python/podio/test_EventStoreSio.py
+++ b/python/podio/test_EventStoreSio.py
@@ -4,9 +4,10 @@
 import unittest
 import os
 
+from test_utils import SKIP_SIO_TESTS  # pylint: disable=import-error
+from test_EventStore import EventStoreBaseTestCaseMixin  # pylint: disable=import-error
+
 from podio.EventStore import EventStore
-from podio.test_EventStore import EventStoreBaseTestCaseMixin
-from podio.test_utils import SKIP_SIO_TESTS
 
 
 @unittest.skipIf(SKIP_SIO_TESTS, "no SIO support")
diff --git a/python/podio/test_Frame.py b/python/podio/test_Frame.py
index 7761deaf0..0dc823d76 100644
--- a/python/podio/test_Frame.py
+++ b/python/podio/test_Frame.py
@@ -3,11 +3,13 @@
 
 import unittest
 
+# pylint: disable=import-error
+from test_utils import ExampleHitCollection  # noqa: E402
+
 from podio.frame import Frame
 # using root_io as that should always be present regardless of which backends are built
 from podio.root_io import Reader
 
-from podio.test_utils import ExampleHitCollection
 
 # The expected collections in each frame
 EXPECTED_COLL_NAMES = {
diff --git a/python/podio/test_ReaderRoot.py b/python/podio/test_ReaderRoot.py
index 44ee32157..a7bdf98f8 100644
--- a/python/podio/test_ReaderRoot.py
+++ b/python/podio/test_ReaderRoot.py
@@ -3,8 +3,9 @@
 
 import unittest
 
+from test_Reader import ReaderTestCaseMixin, LegacyReaderTestCaseMixin  # pylint: disable=import-error
+
 from podio.root_io import Reader, LegacyReader
-from podio.test_Reader import ReaderTestCaseMixin, LegacyReaderTestCaseMixin
 
 
 class RootReaderTestCase(ReaderTestCaseMixin, unittest.TestCase):
diff --git a/python/podio/test_ReaderSio.py b/python/podio/test_ReaderSio.py
index 83489919d..ef7b86b6b 100644
--- a/python/podio/test_ReaderSio.py
+++ b/python/podio/test_ReaderSio.py
@@ -3,8 +3,8 @@
 
 import unittest
 
-from podio.test_Reader import ReaderTestCaseMixin, LegacyReaderTestCaseMixin
-from podio.test_utils import SKIP_SIO_TESTS
+from test_Reader import ReaderTestCaseMixin, LegacyReaderTestCaseMixin  # pylint: disable=import-error
+from test_utils import SKIP_SIO_TESTS  # pylint: disable=import-error
 
 
 @unittest.skipIf(SKIP_SIO_TESTS, "no SIO support")
diff --git a/python/podio/test_utils.py b/python/podio/test_utils.py
index 44efc9cce..3fed5959a 100644
--- a/python/podio/test_utils.py
+++ b/python/podio/test_utils.py
@@ -3,10 +3,11 @@
 
 import os
 import ROOT
+
 ROOT.gSystem.Load("libTestDataModelDict.so")  # noqa: E402
 from ROOT import ExampleHitCollection, ExampleClusterCollection  # noqa: E402 # pylint: disable=wrong-import-position
 
-from podio.frame import Frame  # pylint: disable=wrong-import-position
+from podio import Frame  # pylint: disable=wrong-import-position
 
 
 SKIP_SIO_TESTS = os.environ.get("SKIP_SIO_TESTS", "1") == "1"
diff --git a/tests/root_io/write_frame_root.py b/tests/root_io/write_frame_root.py
index 38bece171..e0525a268 100644
--- a/tests/root_io/write_frame_root.py
+++ b/tests/root_io/write_frame_root.py
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@
 """Script to write a Frame in ROOT format"""
 
 from podio import test_utils
-from podio.root_io import Writer
+
+from podio.root_io import Writer  # pylint: disable=wrong-import-position
+
 
 test_utils.write_file(Writer, "example_frame_with_py.root")