diff --git a/petitions/migrations/0004_petition_preamble.py b/petitions/migrations/0004_petition_preamble.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..0f6007370c4e5051f55ec4ea5fd424624ae02a0b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/petitions/migrations/0004_petition_preamble.py
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+# Generated by Django 1.11.4 on 2017-10-05 10:53
+from __future__ import unicode_literals
+
+from django.db import migrations, models
+
+
+class Migration(migrations.Migration):
+
+    dependencies = [
+        ('petitions', '0003_auto_20171004_2139'),
+    ]
+
+    operations = [
+        migrations.AddField(
+            model_name='petition',
+            name='preamble',
+            field=models.TextField(blank=True, null=True),
+        ),
+    ]
diff --git a/petitions/models.py b/petitions/models.py
index d68d154beb3d469d64bb6effb2b881ad0480062e..fec56dbd666f2f6bfc7dfec414c436132da14f03 100644
--- a/petitions/models.py
+++ b/petitions/models.py
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ class Petition(models.Model):
     title = models.CharField(max_length=256)
     slug = models.SlugField()
     headline = models.CharField(max_length=256)
+    preamble = models.TextField(blank=True, null=True)
     statement = models.TextField()
     creator = models.ForeignKey(User, on_delete=models.CASCADE)
     created = models.DateTimeField(auto_now_add=True)
diff --git a/petitions/templates/petitions/petition.html b/petitions/templates/petitions/petition.html
index 5f0a78f45569bc9e16910a06a55fb549661324eb..993495e6643c6ff9330b87863dd6dc408d595d52 100644
--- a/petitions/templates/petitions/petition.html
+++ b/petitions/templates/petitions/petition.html
@@ -9,7 +9,12 @@
 <div class="row">
   <div class="col-12">
     <h1 class="highlight">{{ petition.headline }}</h1>
-      <p>{{ petition.statement|linebreaksbr }}</p>
+    {% if petition.preamble %}
+    <h3>Preamble:</h3>
+    <p>{{ petition.preamble|linebreaksbr }}</p>
+    {% endif %}
+    <h3>Petition statement:</h3>
+    <p>{{ petition.statement|linebreaksbr }}</p>
       {% if not is_signed %}
       <h3>Please consider signing this petition</h3>
       <form action="{{ petition.get_absolute_url }}" method="post">