Laravel 5.2 - Basic Auth using .htpasswd - .htaccess

Question

I'm having trouble setting up a .htpasswd protected laravel project.
I tried adding the following to my .htaccess but it causes an internal server error (500) after I entered my credentials..
.htaccess content:
AuthUserFile .htpasswd
AuthType Basic
AuthName "Secured area"
Require valid-user
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
<IfModule mod_negotiation.c>
Options -MultiViews
</IfModule>
RewriteEngine On
# Redirect Trailing Slashes If Not A Folder...
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)/$ /$1 [L,R=301]
# Handle Front Controller...
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^ index.php [L]
# Handle Authorization Header
RewriteCond %{HTTP:Authorization} .
RewriteRule .* - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization}]
</IfModule>
And this is the current routes.php. Just in case it's something I should change in the routes.php:
Route::get('/', 'HomeController#index');
Route::auth();
Route::get('/home', 'HomeController#index');
I couldn't find anything useful on Google which still works under laravel 5.2 so I really hope someone out there has an idea :)

Answer 1

As #Olaf mentioned. changing this:
AuthUserFile .htpasswd
..into this:
AuthUserFile /absolute/server/path/.htpasswd
..did the trick. Thank you verry much!