diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index ba6380c4d..f63ffec88 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+2011-10-17  Fred Kiefer <FredKiefer@gmx.de>
+
+	* Source/NSString.m (-initWithCoder:): In keyed coding the key
+	"NS.bytes" may contain either an NSData or an NSString object. Not
+	sure about the encoding, I am using UTF8.
+
 2011-10-17  Richard Frith-Macdonald <rfm@gnu.org>
 
 	* standalone.conf: First draft at a layout for standalone system
@@ -16,7 +22,7 @@
 
 2011-10-15  Gregory Casamento <greg.casamento@gmail.com>
 
-	* Documentation/GNUmakefile: 
+	* Documentation/GNUmakefile:
 	* Documentation/README.initialize: Documentation referred to by
 	NSThread warning.
 
diff --git a/Source/NSString.m b/Source/NSString.m
index e6ede0442..e344dbfe7 100644
--- a/Source/NSString.m
+++ b/Source/NSString.m
@@ -5036,20 +5036,34 @@ static NSFileManager *fm = nil;
 {
   if ([aCoder allowsKeyedCoding])
     {
-      NSString *string = nil;
-
       if ([aCoder containsValueForKey: @"NS.string"])
-          {
-            string = (NSString*)[(NSKeyedUnarchiver*)aCoder
-                                    _decodePropertyListForKey: @"NS.string"];
-          }
+        {
+          NSString *string = nil;
+      
+          string = (NSString*)[(NSKeyedUnarchiver*)aCoder
+                                  _decodePropertyListForKey: @"NS.string"];
+          self = [self initWithString: string];
+        }
       else if ([aCoder containsValueForKey: @"NS.bytes"])
         {
-          string = (NSString*)[(NSKeyedUnarchiver*)aCoder
-                                    decodeObjectForKey: @"NS.bytes"];
-        }
+          id bytes = [(NSKeyedUnarchiver*)aCoder
+                         decodeObjectForKey: @"NS.bytes"];
 
-      self = [self initWithString: string];
+          if ([bytes isKindOfClass: NSStringClass])
+            {
+              self = [self initWithString: (NSString*)bytes];
+            }
+          else
+            {
+              self = [self initWithData: (NSData*)bytes 
+                               encoding: NSUTF8StringEncoding];
+            }
+        }
+      else
+        {
+          // empty string
+          self = [self initWithString: @""];
+        }
     }
   else
     {