diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 740742091..b0a054904 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ clean:
 
 # build unit tests
 json_unit: test/unit.cpp src/json.hpp test/catch.hpp
-	$(CXX) -std=c++11 $(CXXFLAGS) $(FLAGS) $(CPPFLAGS) -I src -I test -Dprivate=public $< $(LDFLAGS) -o $@
+	$(CXX) -std=c++11 $(CXXFLAGS) $(FLAGS) $(CPPFLAGS) -I src -I test $< $(LDFLAGS) -o $@
 
 # create scanner with re2c
 re2c: src/json.hpp.re2c
diff --git a/test/unit.cpp b/test/unit.cpp
index d6b2b4203..92360fb5d 100644
--- a/test/unit.cpp
+++ b/test/unit.cpp
@@ -10,9 +10,6 @@
 #define CATCH_CONFIG_MAIN
 #include "catch.hpp"
 
-#include "json.hpp"
-using nlohmann::json;
-
 #include <array>
 #include <deque>
 #include <forward_list>
@@ -24,6 +21,10 @@ using nlohmann::json;
 #include <unordered_set>
 #include <vector>
 
+#define private public
+#include "json.hpp"
+using nlohmann::json;
+
 TEST_CASE("constructors")
 {
     SECTION("create an empty value with a given type")