diff --git a/backend/controllers/articleController.py b/backend/controllers/articleController.py
index 0f049ed..faa35bc 100644
--- a/backend/controllers/articleController.py
+++ b/backend/controllers/articleController.py
@@ -1,17 +1,23 @@
 from flask import jsonify
 from .dummy_data import *
+from database import db
+
+#https://pymongo.readthedocs.io/en/stable/tutorial.html#getting-a-collection
+articles = db["articles"]
+
+articles.insert_one(dummy_article)
+articles.insert_one(dummy_article_2)
+
 
 # TODO: Implement auth middleware logic to check if user is logged in
 
 
 # TODO: fetch one article from database
 def get_article(id):
-    if id == "1":
-        return jsonify(dummy_article), 200
-    elif id == "2":
-        return jsonify(dummy_article_2), 200
-    else:
-        return "", 404
+    article = articles.find_one(filter = {"_id" : id})
+    if article is not None:
+        return jsonify(article), 200
+    return "", 404
 
 
 # TODO: create one article
diff --git a/backend/database/__init__.py b/backend/database/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bbe8e39
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backend/database/__init__.py
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+
+from pymongo import MongoClient
+from os import getenv
+
+class MissingEnvironmentVariable(Exception):
+    pass
+
+DB_PORT, DB_NAME = getenv("DB_PORT"), getenv("DB_NAME")
+
+if DB_NAME is None:
+    raise MissingEnvironmentVariable("DB_NAME is missing")
+
+if DB_PORT is None:
+    raise MissingEnvironmentVariable("DB_PORT is missing")
+else:
+    DB_PORT = int(DB_PORT)
+    print("connecting to port : " ,DB_PORT)
+
+
+client = MongoClient("mongodb", DB_PORT)
+
+#https://pymongo.readthedocs.io/en/stable/tutorial.html#getting-a-database
+db = getattr(client, DB_NAME)
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/backend/database/__pycache__/__init__.cpython-310.pyc b/backend/database/__pycache__/__init__.cpython-310.pyc
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7d78ce0
Binary files /dev/null and b/backend/database/__pycache__/__init__.cpython-310.pyc differ
diff --git a/backend/requirements.txt b/backend/requirements.txt
index c05d987..ae2a918 100644
--- a/backend/requirements.txt
+++ b/backend/requirements.txt
@@ -1 +1,2 @@
 flask==2.2.3
+pymongo
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/docker-compose-dev.yml b/docker-compose-dev.yml
index a58f743..362b0a4 100644
--- a/docker-compose-dev.yml
+++ b/docker-compose-dev.yml
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@ services:
       - ./backend/middleware:/backend/middleware:ro
       - ./backend/models:/backend/models:ro
       - ./backend/routes:/backend/routes:ro
+      - ./backend/database:/backend/database:ro
 
   react-app-dev:
     depends_on: