use XML::SMART;
use Encode;

my $XML = XML::Smart->new(q`<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<MSR-ISSUE xmlns="" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="my.xsd">
</MSR-ISSUE>`, 'XML::Smart::Parser');

my $test_in_incoming_xml = "Auch wenn man es nach Jahren guter Beschäftigung kaum verstehen kann";

my $decoded_string  = decode("utf8", $test_in_incoming_xml);
$XML->{'MSR-ISSUE'}{'SHORT-NAME'}->content(0,$decoded_string);
my $xmlfile = "C:\\Temp\\TestFile.xml";
$XML->save($xmlfile, nometagen => 1, forceutf8 => 1);

##</code><code>##

#...xml handling...

my $XMLRead = XML::Smart->new("C:\\Temp\\TestFile.xml", 'XML::Smart::Parser');
my $sendername = $XMLRead->{'MSR-ISSUE'}{'SHORT-NAME'};
my $encoded_string  = encode("cp1250", $sendername);

print $encoded_string; 

##</code><code>##

#...xml initi...
my $sendername = $XMLRead->{'MSR-ISSUE'}{'SHORT-NAME'};
$sendername = $sendername . " Test";
my $encoded_string  = encode("cp1250", $sendername);
print $encoded_string;