diff --git a/lib/classes/text.php b/lib/classes/text.php
index 1f79ae1ecb0..7b13d7550ce 100644
--- a/lib/classes/text.php
+++ b/lib/classes/text.php
@@ -185,6 +185,11 @@ class core_text {
             }
         }
 
+        if ($toCS === 'ascii') {
+            // Try to normalize the conversion a bit.
+            $text = self::specialtoascii($text, $fromCS);
+        }
+
         // Prevent any error notices, do not use //IGNORE so that we get
         // consistent result from Typo3 if iconv fails.
         $result = @iconv($fromCS, $toCS.'//TRANSLIT', $text);
diff --git a/lib/tests/text_test.php b/lib/tests/text_test.php
index 1ac11ca16d2..9e6aca896c4 100644
--- a/lib/tests/text_test.php
+++ b/lib/tests/text_test.php
@@ -90,8 +90,12 @@ class core_text_testcase extends advanced_testcase {
         $this->assertSame($utf8, core_text::convert($utf8, 'utf-8', 'utf-8'));
 
         $utf8 = "Žluťoučký koníček";
-        $this->assertSame('Zlutouck\'y kon\'icek', core_text::convert($utf8, 'utf-8', 'ascii'));
+        $this->assertSame('Zlutoucky konicek', core_text::convert($utf8, 'utf-8', 'ascii'));
         $this->assertSame($utf8, core_text::convert($utf8.chr(130), 'utf-8', 'utf-8'));
+        $utf8 = "Der eine stößt den Speer zum Mann";
+        $this->assertSame('Der eine stoesst den Speer zum Mann', core_text::convert($utf8, 'utf-8', 'ascii'));
+        $iso1 = core_text::convert($utf8, 'utf-8', 'iso-8859-1');
+        $this->assertSame('Der eine stoesst den Speer zum Mann', core_text::convert($iso1, 'iso-8859-1', 'ascii'));
     }
 
     /**