diff --git a/gitk b/gitk
index 7b733e9c50..ecc1688c77 100755
--- a/gitk
+++ b/gitk
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ proc gitdir {} {
 proc getcommits {rargs} {
     global commits commfd phase canv mainfont env
     global startmsecs nextupdate ncmupdate
-    global ctext maincursor textcursor leftover
+    global ctext maincursor textcursor leftover gitencoding
 
     # check that we can find a .git directory somewhere...
     set gitdir [gitdir]
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ proc getcommits {rargs} {
 	exit 1
     }
     set leftover {}
-    fconfigure $commfd -blocking 0 -translation lf
+    fconfigure $commfd -blocking 0 -translation lf -encoding $gitencoding
     fileevent $commfd readable [list getcommitlines $commfd]
     $canv delete all
     $canv create text 3 3 -anchor nw -text "Reading commits..." \
@@ -3658,6 +3658,7 @@ set datemode 0
 set boldnames 0
 set diffopts "-U 5 -p"
 set wrcomcmd "git-diff-tree --stdin -p --pretty"
+set gitencoding "utf-8"
 
 set mainfont {Helvetica 9}
 set textfont {Courier 9}