diff --git a/src/Mod/Material/Material.py b/src/Mod/Material/Material.py
index 893d3ded65..1e15ea74d0 100644
--- a/src/Mod/Material/Material.py
+++ b/src/Mod/Material/Material.py
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ def importFCMat(fileName):
     )
     Config = configparser.RawConfigParser()
     Config.optionxform = str
-    Config.read(fileName)
+    Config.read(fileName, encoding='utf-8') # respect unicode filenames
     dict1 = {}
     for section in Config.sections():
         options = Config.options(section)