diff --git a/src/silo/query_engine/filter_expressions/insertion_contains.cpp b/src/silo/query_engine/filter_expressions/insertion_contains.cpp
index 89178028f..2ef09e92a 100644
--- a/src/silo/query_engine/filter_expressions/insertion_contains.cpp
+++ b/src/silo/query_engine/filter_expressions/insertion_contains.cpp
@@ -118,8 +118,8 @@ void from_json(const nlohmann::json& json, std::unique_ptr<InsertionContains<Sym
       "The field 'position' is required in an InsertionContains expression"
    )
    CHECK_SILO_QUERY(
-      json["position"].is_number_unsigned() && (json["position"].get<uint32_t>() > 0),
-      "The field 'position' in an InsertionContains expression needs to be a positive number (> 0)"
+      json["position"].is_number_unsigned(),
+      "The field 'position' in an InsertionContains expression needs to be an unsigned integer"
    )
    CHECK_SILO_QUERY(
       !json.contains("sequenceName") || json["sequenceName"].is_string(),
diff --git a/src/silo/storage/sequence_store.cpp b/src/silo/storage/sequence_store.cpp
index e01b03fa4..a54c50da4 100644
--- a/src/silo/storage/sequence_store.cpp
+++ b/src/silo/storage/sequence_store.cpp
@@ -89,11 +89,6 @@ InsertionEntry parseInsertion(const std::string& value) {
    try {
       if (position_and_insertion.size() == 2) {
          const auto position = boost::lexical_cast<uint32_t>(position_and_insertion[0]);
-         if (position == 0) {
-            const std::string message =
-               "Positions are 1-indexed, position of 0 not allowed in insertion: " + value;
-            throw silo::preprocessing::PreprocessingException(message);
-         }
          const auto& insertion = position_and_insertion[1];
          return {.position_idx = position, .insertion = insertion};
       }