diff --git a/compat.php b/compat.php
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..57875398b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/compat.php
@@ -0,0 +1,97 @@
+<?
+
+if (!function_exists('mb_strlen')) 
+{
+  // from Typo3
+  // author Martin Kutschker <martin.t.kutschker@blackbox.net>
+  function mb_strlen($str, $encoding="utf-8") 
+    {
+      if($encoding != "utf-8")
+	{ return -1; }
+
+      $n=0;
+
+      for($i=0; isset($str{$i}); $i++) 
+	{	  
+	  $c = ord($str{$i});
+
+	  if (!($c & 0x80)) // single-byte (0xxxxxx)
+	    $n++;
+
+	  elseif (($c & 0xC0) == 0xC0) // multi-byte starting byte (11xxxxxx)
+	    $n++;
+	}
+
+      return $n;
+    }
+}
+
+if (!function_exists('mb_substr'))
+{
+  // from Typo3
+  // author Martin Kutschker <martin.t.kutschker@blackbox.net>
+  function mb_substr($str, $start, $len=null, $encoding="utf-8")
+    {
+      if($encoding != "utf-8")
+	{ return -1; }
+
+      $byte_start = utf8_char2byte_pos($str,$start);
+
+      if ($byte_start === false) 
+	return false; // $start outside string length 
+
+      $str = substr($str,$byte_start); 
+
+      if ($len != null) 
+	{
+	  $byte_end = utf8_char2byte_pos($str,$len);
+
+	  if ($byte_end === false) // $len outside actual string length
+	    return $str;
+	  else	  
+	    return substr($str,0,$byte_end);
+	}
+
+      else return $str;
+    }
+
+  function utf8_char2byte_pos($str,$pos) 
+    {
+      $n = 0;  // number of characters found     
+      $p = abs($pos); // number of characters wanted 
+
+      if ($pos >= 0) 
+	{
+	  $i = 0;
+	  $d = 1;
+	} else {       
+	  $i = strlen($str)-1;
+	  $d = -1;
+	} 
+
+      for( ; isset($str{$i}) && $n<$p; $i+=$d) 
+	{
+	  $c = (int)ord($str{$i});
+	  
+	  if (!($c & 0x80)) // single-byte (0xxxxxx)	    
+	    $n++;
+	  elseif (($c & 0xC0) == 0xC0) // multi-byte starting byte (11xxxxxx)
+	    $n++;
+	}
+
+      if (!isset($str{$i})) 
+	return false; // offset beyond string length 
+
+      if ($pos >= 0) 
+	{
+	  // skip trailing multi-byte data bytes
+	  while ((ord($str{$i}) & 0x80) && !(ord($str{$i}) & 0x40)) 
+	    { $i++; }
+	} else {	  
+	  // correct offset
+	  $i++;
+	} 
+          
+      return $i;      
+    }
+}
diff --git a/functions.php b/functions.php
index 7d65c9038..6cc9b2310 100644
--- a/functions.php
+++ b/functions.php
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 
 	require_once 'config.php';
 	require_once 'db-prefs.php';
+	require_once 'compat.php';
 
 	require_once 'magpierss/rss_utils.inc';