diff --git a/includes/locale.php b/includes/locale.php
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..2d9aabc7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/includes/locale.php
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+<?php
+
+/**
+* Sets locale information for i18n support
+*
+*/
+
+$lang = $_SERVER['HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE'];
+
+switch ($lang){
+    case "de":
+        $locale = "de_DE.UTF-8";
+        break;
+    case "fr":
+        $locale = "fr_FR.UTF-8";
+        break;
+    case "it":
+        $locale = "it_IT.UTF-8";
+        break;        
+    default:
+        $locale = "en_US.UTF-8";
+        break;
+}
+                                                                                                                                                                                          
+// activate the locale setting                                                                                                                                                            
+putenv("LANG=" . $locale);                                                                                                                                                                
+setlocale(LC_ALL, $locale);                                                                                                                                                               
+                                                                                                                                                                                          
+$domain = "messages";                                                                                                                                                                     
+$locale_root = "locale";                                                                                                                                              
+bindtextdomain($domain, $locale_root);                                                                                                                                                    
+bind_textdomain_codeset($domain, 'UTF-8');                                                                                                                                                
+                                                                                                                                                                                          
+textdomain($domain);                                                                                                                                                                      
+                                                                                                                                                                                          
+// debug                                                                                                                                                                                  
+echo '<br>locale: ' . $locale . "<br>";                                                                                                                                                       
+echo 'locale root: ' .$locale_root . "<br>";                                                                                                                                              
+                                                                                                                                                                                          
+$results = bindtextdomain($domain, $locale_root);                                                                                                                                         
+echo 'new text domain is set: ' . $results. "<br>";                                                                                                                                       
+                                                                                                                                                                                          
+$results = textdomain($domain);                                                                                                                                                           
+echo 'current message domain is set: ' . $results. "<br>";                                                                                                                                
+?>