[BUG] German typographic quotes get incorrectly auto-corrected

Preflight Checklist

• [x] I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
• [x] This is a single bug report (please file separate reports for different bugs)
• [x] I am using the latest version of Claude Code

What's Wrong?

Claude Code repeatedly "corrects" properly formatted German quotation marks to incorrect variants. When writing content with German quotes „Text“ (U+201E opening, U+201C closing), Claude always:

1. Replaces them with straight ASCII quotes „Text"
2. Uses wrong Unicode variants
3. Inconsistently applies different quote styles in the same document

What Should Happen?

German typographic quotes should be preserved:

• Opening quote: „ (U+201E DOUBLE LOW-9 QUOTATION MARK)
• Closing quote: “ (U+201C LEFT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK)

These should NOT be "corrected" to:

• ASCII " (U+0022)
• English " and " (U+201C, U+201D)
• French « and »

Error Messages/Logs

no error message at all.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Write German text with proper quotes: „Beispiel“
2. Ask Claude to edit or extend the text
3. Observe that quotes get changed to incorrect format

Claude Model

Opus

Is this a regression?

No, this never worked

Last Working Version

_No response_

Claude Code Version

2.1.31 (Claude Code)

Platform

Anthropic API

Operating System

macOS

Terminal/Shell

Terminal.app (macOS)

Additional Information

Environment

• macOS / Terminal with UTF-8

This is critical for German-language content workflows. The current behavior forces users to run post-processing scripts (like fix_quotes.py) after every Claude interaction, which defeats the purpose of AI-assisted writing.

A locale-aware quote handling or at minimum a "preserve existing quote style" behavior would solve this.