diff --git a/lang/qt/src/debug.cpp b/lang/qt/src/debug.cpp
index b563ac0c..2f6d200b 100644
--- a/lang/qt/src/debug.cpp
+++ b/lang/qt/src/debug.cpp
@@ -42,8 +42,14 @@
 
 QDebug operator<<(QDebug debug, const GpgME::Error &err)
 {
+#ifdef Q_OS_WIN
+    // On Windows, we tell libgpg-error to return (translated) error messages as UTF-8
+    const auto errAsString = QString::fromUtf8(err.asString());
+#else
+    const auto errAsString = QString::fromLocal8Bit(err.asString());
+#endif
     const bool oldSetting = debug.autoInsertSpaces();
-    debug.nospace() << err.asString() << " (code: " << err.code() << ", source: " << err.source() << ")";
+    debug.nospace() << errAsString << " (code: " << err.code() << ", source: " << err.source() << ")";
     debug.setAutoInsertSpaces(oldSetting);
     return debug.maybeSpace();
 }