diff --git a/soitool/database.py b/soitool/database.py
index 98d509249accd9e5eac12bfa7c68b79b8d182299..fc2289c2add8cf185c9e31817938319015bad7e8 100644
--- a/soitool/database.py
+++ b/soitool/database.py
@@ -36,6 +36,8 @@ class Database():
         else:
             print('Creating new DB.')
             self.conn = sqlite3.connect(DBPATH)
+            # self.conn.cursor().execute('pragma encoding=UTF8')
+
             self.create_tables()
             print('DB created.')
             self.fill_tables()
@@ -62,10 +64,11 @@ class Database():
     def fill_codebook(self):
         """Read data from codebook.json and fills DB-table CodeBook."""
         file_path = os.path.join(CURDIR, "testdata/codebook.json")
+
         # Load json as dict
-        with open(file_path, "r") as file:
-            codewords = json.load(file)
-        file.close()
+        f = open(file_path, "r", encoding="utf-8")
+        codewords = json.load(f)
+        f.close()
 
         # Insert data in db
         stmt = 'INSERT INTO CodeBook(Word, Category, Type, Code)' \
diff --git a/test/test_database.py b/test/test_database.py
index 38c82788c5b38e800fe493d32f9fcae9a252a9fb..cf3ab2e8f3c20ebff822929b891677eafa9cc95a 100644
--- a/test/test_database.py
+++ b/test/test_database.py
@@ -83,9 +83,9 @@ class DatabaseTest(unittest.TestCase):
         """Assert function get_codebook works as expected."""
         # Get test-data from json
         file_path = os.path.join(TESTDATA_PATH, "codebook.json")
-        with open(file_path, "r") as file:
-            expected = json.load(file)
-        file.close()
+        f = open(file_path, "r", encoding="utf-8")
+        expected = json.load(f)
+        f.close()
 
         # Get data from db
         stmt = 'SELECT * FROM CodeBook'
@@ -126,9 +126,9 @@ class DatabaseTest(unittest.TestCase):
         """Assert function get_codebook returns full codebook."""
         # Load full codebook
         file_path = os.path.join(TESTDATA_PATH, "codebook.json")
-        with open(file_path, "r") as file:
-            expected = json.load(file)
-        file.close()
+        f = open(file_path, "r", encoding="utf-8")
+        expected = json.load(f)
+        f.close()
 
         # Get full codebook from db
         actual = self.database.get_codebook()
@@ -147,9 +147,9 @@ class DatabaseTest(unittest.TestCase):
         """Assert function get_codebook only return the small codebook."""
         # Load full codebook
         file_path = os.path.join(TESTDATA_PATH, "codebook.json")
-        with open(file_path, "r") as file:
-            data = json.load(file)
-        file.close()
+        f = open(file_path, "r", encoding="utf-8")
+        data = json.load(f)
+        f.close()
 
         # Fill expected with only small codebook entries
         expected = []