diff --git a/AUTHORS b/AUTHORS
index 855717ea64..d6aa7fb2a1 100644
--- a/AUTHORS
+++ b/AUTHORS
@@ -107,6 +107,7 @@ answer newbie questions, and generally made Django that much better:
     Simon Greenhill <dev@simon.net.nz>
     Owen Griffiths
     Espen Grindhaug <http://grindhaug.org/>
+    Thomas Güttler <hv@tbz-pariv.de>
     Brian Harring <ferringb@gmail.com>
     Brant Harris
     Hawkeye
diff --git a/django/views/debug.py b/django/views/debug.py
index 2530350e26..352b4c880b 100644
--- a/django/views/debug.py
+++ b/django/views/debug.py
@@ -188,6 +188,17 @@ def _get_lines_from_file(filename, lineno, context_lines, loader=None, module_na
     if source is None:
         return None, [], None, []
 
+    encoding=None
+    for line in source[:2]:
+        # File coding may be specified (and may not be UTF-8). Match
+        # pattern from PEP-263 (http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0263/)
+        match = re.search(r'coding[:=]\s*([-\w.]+)', line)
+        if match:
+            encoding = match.group(1)
+            break
+    if encoding:
+        source = [unicode(sline, encoding) for sline in source]
+
     lower_bound = max(0, lineno - context_lines)
     upper_bound = lineno + context_lines