diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index bcabe2ce..a945fb5b 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
 Noteworthy changes in version 1.20.0 (unreleased)
 -------------------------------------------------
 
+ * On Windows, the gettext functions provided by gpgrt are switched into utf8
+   mode, so that all localized texts returned by GpgME or gpgrt, e.g. the
+   texts for error codes are now UTF-8 encoded.
 
  * Interface changes relative to the 1.19.0 release:
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 0c15ab08..3ec1ea44 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -922,6 +922,9 @@ AH_BOTTOM([
 # define GPGME_GCC_A_PURE
 #endif
 
+/* Under Windows we use the gettext code from gpgrt.  */
+#define GPG_ERR_ENABLE_GETTEXT_MACROS
+
 /* Under WindowsCE we need gpg-error's strerror macro.  */
 #define GPG_ERR_ENABLE_ERRNO_MACROS 1
 
diff --git a/src/version.c b/src/version.c
index 5beb63a3..693a1e83 100644
--- a/src/version.c
+++ b/src/version.c
@@ -72,6 +72,9 @@ do_subsystem_inits (void)
 
     WSAStartup (0x202, &wsadat);
   }
+
+  /* We want gpgrt's gettext to always output UTF-8. */
+  gettext_use_utf8 (1);
 #endif
 
   _gpgme_debug_subsystem_init ();