diff --git a/frappy/lib/__init__.py b/frappy/lib/__init__.py
index b227c13c..c577fe7e 100644
--- a/frappy/lib/__init__.py
+++ b/frappy/lib/__init__.py
@@ -248,13 +248,16 @@ def get_class(spec):
        a class (or any object) and optionally names of attributes
     :return: the object
     """
+    error = None
     for maxsplit in range(1, len(spec)):
         # len(spec) is high enough for all cases
         module, *attrs = spec.rsplit('.', maxsplit)
         try:
             obj = importlib.import_module(module)
             break
-        except ImportError:
+        except ImportError as e:
+            if error is None:
+                error = module, e
             if '.' in module:
                 continue
             raise
@@ -262,7 +265,8 @@ def get_class(spec):
         try:
             obj = getattr(obj, attr)
         except AttributeError:
-            print(na, attrs)
+            if error is not None:
+                raise ImportError(f'{error[1]} during import {error[0]}') from None
             raise AttributeError(f'{".".join(attrs[:na+1])!r} not found in {module!r}') from None
     return obj