my $f_ae = 'õ';
    my $f_oe = '÷';
    my $f_ue = '³';
    my $f_sz = '¯';
    $val =~ s/ä/ae/g;
    $val =~ s/ü/oe/g;
    $val =~ s/ö/ue/g;
    $val =~ s/ß/ss/g;
    $val =~ s/$f_ae/ae/g;
    $val =~ s/$f_oe/oe/g;
    $val =~ s/$f_ue/ue/g;
    $val =~ s/$f_sz/ss/g;
    $val = Encode::encode("iso-8859-1", $val);