Recorder not starting

My system will not start the recorder anymore. It throws an exception which is not very clear to me what is actually failing. log file with debug level:

2020-11-29 12:06:41 DEBUG (MainThread) [homeassistant.core] Bus:Handling <Event service_registered[L]: domain=logger, service=set_default_level>
2020-11-29 12:06:41 DEBUG (MainThread) [homeassistant.core] Bus:Handling <Event service_registered[L]: domain=logger, service=set_level>
2020-11-29 12:06:41 INFO (MainThread) [homeassistant.setup] Setup of domain logger took 0.0 seconds
2020-11-29 12:06:41 DEBUG (MainThread) [homeassistant.core] Bus:Handling <Event component_loaded[L]: component=logger>
2020-11-29 12:06:41 INFO (MainThread) [homeassistant.setup] Setting up http
2020-11-29 12:06:41 INFO (MainThread) [homeassistant.setup] Setup of domain http took 0.0 seconds
2020-11-29 12:06:41 DEBUG (MainThread) [homeassistant.core] Bus:Handling <Event component_loaded[L]: component=http>
2020-11-29 12:06:41 INFO (MainThread) [homeassistant.setup] Setting up system_log
2020-11-29 12:06:41 DEBUG (MainThread) [homeassistant.core] Bus:Handling <Event service_registered[L]: domain=system_log, service=clear>
2020-11-29 12:06:41 DEBUG (MainThread) [homeassistant.core] Bus:Handling <Event service_registered[L]: domain=system_log, service=write>
2020-11-29 12:06:41 INFO (MainThread) [homeassistant.setup] Setup of domain system_log took 0.0 seconds
2020-11-29 12:06:41 DEBUG (MainThread) [homeassistant.core] Bus:Handling <Event component_loaded[L]: component=system_log>
2020-11-29 12:06:41 ERROR (MainThread) [homeassistant.bootstrap] Error setting up integration recorder - received exception
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/srv/homeassistant/lib/python3.8/site-packages/homeassistant/setup.py", line 64, in async_setup_component
    return await task  # type: ignore
  File "/srv/homeassistant/lib/python3.8/site-packages/homeassistant/setup.py", line 158, in _async_setup_component
    await async_process_deps_reqs(hass, config, integration)
  File "/srv/homeassistant/lib/python3.8/site-packages/homeassistant/setup.py", line 343, in async_process_deps_reqs
    await requirements.async_get_integration_with_requirements(
  File "/srv/homeassistant/lib/python3.8/site-packages/homeassistant/requirements.py", line 74, in async_get_integration_with_requirements
    await async_process_requirements(
  File "/srv/homeassistant/lib/python3.8/site-packages/homeassistant/requirements.py", line 121, in async_process_requirements
    if pkg_util.is_installed(req):
  File "/srv/homeassistant/lib/python3.8/site-packages/homeassistant/util/package.py", line 54, in is_installed
    return version(req.project_name) in req
  File "/srv/homeassistant/lib/python3.8/site-packages/pkg_resources/__init__.py", line 3078, in __contains__
    return self.specifier.contains(item, prereleases=True)
  File "/srv/homeassistant/lib/python3.8/site-packages/pkg_resources/_vendor/packaging/specifiers.py", line 703, in contains
    item = parse(item)
  File "/srv/homeassistant/lib/python3.8/site-packages/pkg_resources/_vendor/packaging/version.py", line 31, in parse
    return Version(version)
  File "/srv/homeassistant/lib/python3.8/site-packages/pkg_resources/_vendor/packaging/version.py", line 200, in __init__
    match = self._regex.search(version)
TypeError: expected string or bytes-like object

I have deleted the database and recreated it and restarted the system, but that did not help. Besides the recorder and the history HA is working fine. How to fix this?

opened an issue on github: https://github.com/home-assistant/core/issues/43849