diff --git a/source/de/anomic/search/ReferenceOrder.java b/source/de/anomic/search/ReferenceOrder.java
index d1ea00979..340ec015a 100644
--- a/source/de/anomic/search/ReferenceOrder.java
+++ b/source/de/anomic/search/ReferenceOrder.java
@@ -182,6 +182,6 @@ public class ReferenceOrder {
 
     private static final String patchUK(String l) {
         // this is to patch a bad language name setting that was used in 0.60 and before
-        if (l.equals("uk")) return "en"; else return l;
+        if (l == null || l.equals("uk")) return "en"; else return l;
     }
 }