Character-encoding problem with string literal in source code

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Note: Remoting and use of Invoke-Command are incidental to your problem.

Since the problem occurs with a string literal in your source code (...\01_Klassenbücher\...), the likeliest explanation is that your script file is misinterpreted by PowerShell.

In Windows PowerShell, if your script file is de facto UTF-8-encoded but lacks a BOM, the PowerShell engine will misinterpret any non-ASCII-range characters (such as ü) in the script.[1]

Therefore: Re-save your script as UTF-8 with BOM.

Note:

  • A UTF-8 BOM is no longer strictly necessary in the install-on-demand, cross-platform PowerShell (Core) 7+ edition (which consistently defaults to (BOM-less) UTF-8), but continues to be required if you want your scripts to work in both PowerShell editions.

Why you should save your scripts as UTF-8 with BOM:

Visual Studio Code and other modern editors create UTF-8 files without BOM by default, which is what causes the problem in Windows PowerShell.

By contrast, the PowerShell ISE creates “ANSI”-encoded[1] files, which Windows PowerShell – but not PowerShell Core – reads correctly.

You can only get away with “ANSI”-encoded files:

  • if your scripts will never be run in PowerShell Core – where all future development effort will go.

  • if your scripts will never run on a machine where a different “ANSI” code page is in effect.

  • if your script doesn’t contain characters – e.g., emoji – that cannot be represented with your “ANSI” code page.

Given these limitations, it’s safest – and future-proof – to always create PowerShell scripts as UTF-8 with BOM.
(Alternatively, you can use UTF-16 (which is always saved with a BOM), but that bloats the file size if you’re primarily using ASCII/”ANSI”-range characters, which is likely in PS scripts).

How to make Visual Studio Code create UTF-8 files with-BOM for PowerShell scripts by default:

Note: The following is still required as of v1.11.0 of the PowerShell extension for VSCode, but not that there’s a suggestion to make the extension default PowerShell files to UTF-8 with BOM on GitHub.

Add the following to your settings.json file (from the command palette (Ctrl+Shift+P, type settings and select Preferences: Open Settings (JSON)):

"[powershell]": {
  "files.encoding": "utf8bom"
}

Note that the setting is intentionally scoped to PowerShell files only, because you wouldn’t want all files to default to UTF-8 with BOM, given that many utilities on Unix platforms neither expect nor know how to handle such a BOM.

[1] In the absence of a BOM, Windows PowerShell defaults to the encoding of the system’s current “ANSI” code page, as determined by the legacy system locale; e.g., in Western European cultures, Windows-1252.

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