diff --git a/tests/org.eclipse.emfcloud.modelserver.emf.tests/.gitignore b/tests/org.eclipse.emfcloud.modelserver.emf.tests/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e050804
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/org.eclipse.emfcloud.modelserver.emf.tests/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+/.temp/
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/tests/org.eclipse.emfcloud.modelserver.emf.tests/src/org/eclipse/emfcloud/modelserver/emf/AbstractResourceTest.java b/tests/org.eclipse.emfcloud.modelserver.emf.tests/src/org/eclipse/emfcloud/modelserver/emf/AbstractResourceTest.java
index c6fcb95..9551576 100644
--- a/tests/org.eclipse.emfcloud.modelserver.emf.tests/src/org/eclipse/emfcloud/modelserver/emf/AbstractResourceTest.java
+++ b/tests/org.eclipse.emfcloud.modelserver.emf.tests/src/org/eclipse/emfcloud/modelserver/emf/AbstractResourceTest.java
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /********************************************************************************
- * Copyright (c) 2019 EclipseSource and others.
+ * Copyright (c) 2019-2023 EclipseSource and others.
  *
  * This program and the accompanying materials are made available under the
  * terms of the Eclipse Public License v. 2.0 which is available at
@@ -10,7 +10,12 @@
  ********************************************************************************/
 package org.eclipse.emfcloud.modelserver.emf;
 
+import java.io.File;
+import java.io.FileInputStream;
+import java.io.FileOutputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.InputStream;
+import java.io.OutputStream;
 import java.util.Collections;
 
 import org.eclipse.emf.common.util.URI;
@@ -21,12 +26,23 @@
 import org.eclipse.emfcloud.modelserver.common.codecs.EMFJsonConverter;
 import org.junit.After;
 import org.junit.Before;
+import org.junit.BeforeClass;
 
 public abstract class AbstractResourceTest {
-   public static final String RESOURCE_PATH = "resources/";
+   public static final String TEST_RESOURCES_PATH = "resources/";
+   public static final String RESOURCE_PATH = ".temp/";
    @SuppressWarnings({ "checkstyle:VisibilityModifier" })
    protected ResourceSetImpl resourceSet; // needed in ResourceManagerTest.java
 
+   @BeforeClass
+   public static void setupTestResources() throws IOException {
+      // copy test resources to a temporary resource location to avoid
+      // git changes if executing tests due to saving resources
+      File sourceDirectory = new File(TEST_RESOURCES_PATH);
+      File destinationDirectory = new File(RESOURCE_PATH);
+      copyDirectoryFiles(sourceDirectory, destinationDirectory);
+   }
+
    @Before
    public void initializeResourceSet() {
       resourceSet = new ResourceSetImpl();
@@ -35,6 +51,33 @@ public void initializeResourceSet() {
       resourceSet.getResourceFactoryRegistry().getExtensionToFactoryMap().put("*", new XMIResourceFactoryImpl());
    }
 
+   private static void copyDirectoryFiles(final File sourceDirectory, final File destinationDirectory)
+      throws IOException {
+      if (!destinationDirectory.exists()) {
+         destinationDirectory.mkdir();
+      }
+      for (String f : sourceDirectory.list()) {
+         File source = new File(sourceDirectory, f);
+         File destination = new File(destinationDirectory, f);
+         // our src directory only contains files
+         if (source.isFile()) {
+            copyFile(source, destination);
+         }
+      }
+   }
+
+   private static void copyFile(final File sourceFile, final File destinationFile)
+      throws IOException {
+      try (InputStream in = new FileInputStream(sourceFile);
+         OutputStream out = new FileOutputStream(destinationFile)) {
+         byte[] buf = new byte[1024];
+         int length;
+         while ((length = in.read(buf)) > 0) {
+            out.write(buf, 0, length);
+         }
+      }
+   }
+
    protected Resource loadResource(final String file) throws IOException {
       Resource resource = resourceSet.createResource(URI.createFileURI(toFullPath(file)));
       resource.load(Collections.EMPTY_MAP);
diff --git a/tests/pom.xml b/tests/pom.xml
index 6d7ac65..ac7bc87 100644
--- a/tests/pom.xml
+++ b/tests/pom.xml
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
       <module>org.eclipse.emfcloud.modelserver.client.tests</module>
       <module>org.eclipse.emfcloud.modelserver.common.tests</module>
       <module>org.eclipse.emfcloud.modelserver.edit.tests</module>
+      <module>org.eclipse.emfcloud.modelserver.emf.tests</module>
       <module>org.eclipse.emfcloud.modelserver.tests</module>
    </modules>
 
@@ -22,11 +23,6 @@
       <profile>
          <id>m2</id>
 
-         <!-- mockito cannot properly mock some classes so tests fail in p2 -->
-         <modules>
-            <module>org.eclipse.emfcloud.modelserver.emf.tests</module>
-         </modules>
-
          <build>
             <plugins>
                <plugin>