Encoding of German umlauts when using readOGR

Julian is right.

file_name <- "../gis_data/bw/AX_KommunalesGebiet.shp"shape_kommunal <- readOGR(file_name, layer = "AX_KommunalesGebiet", use_iconv = TRUE, encoding = "UTF-8")data_kommunal <- shape_kommunal@datahead(data_kommunal)

returns the string correctly:

  GKZ                NAME0 08236074           Kämpfelbach1 08425052           Grundsheim2 08435067           Deggenhausertal

The encoding-parameter is ignored, if iconv is not set to TRUE.

I'm not quite sure what encoding = "UTF-8/LATIN-1/..." might do. I would have expected that you would choose one and only one encoding scheme. On my machine I do see the translation of that octal character to the o-umlaut:

> 'B\303\266blingen'[1] "Böblingen"> 'L\303\266rrach'[1] "Lörrach"

To see the various conventions for R characters, type:

?Quotes

Besides encodings, there is also the need to have characters in the font being used. The font used in your console display doesn't seem to have the proper mappings for o-umlaut. My default font is Courier. You should also check your locale settings. ?Sys.getlocale