<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no" ?>
<data>
  <element>Märchen</element>
</data>

    $xml_parser1 = xml_parser_create("ISO-8859-1");
    xml_set_element_handler($xml_parser1, "globals_start_element_handler", "globals_end_element_handler");
    xml_set_character_data_handler($xml_parser1,"globals_character_data_handler");
    $fp = @fopen($file, "r") or die("could not open XML config-file: $file");
    while ($data = @fread($fp, 4096))
    {
        $data=utf8_decode($data);
        if (!xml_parse($xml_parser1, $data, feof($fp)))
        die(sprintf("XML Error: %s at line %d",
            xml_error_string(xml_get_error_code($xml_parser1)),
            xml_get_current_line_number($xml_parser1)));
    }
    xml_parser_free($xml_parser1);