german characters (ü,ö,ä,ß) on debian linux

[Matthias Schweinoch <matthias.schweinoch@epost.de>]

hi,

i run a woody 3.0r1 linux, and i can't seem to get certain german characters displayed (or typed). this effect is limited to certain applications. for example, i can see and type the characters in my mailer, (as they appear in the subject line), emacs will take them (though saving files with these characters will typically bugger them up), but in an xterm (or konsole), or when i work with x11 disabled, i can't type or see these characters: when i call "ls" on a directory that holds entries with these characters, they will be replaced by a question mark... trying to type them gives me the error beep.

i'd be thankful for suggestions.

thanks for your help in advance.

matthias schweinoch