diff --git a/server/services/weather_service.py b/server/services/weather_service.py
index 9552530..bf9cad9 100644
--- a/server/services/weather_service.py
+++ b/server/services/weather_service.py
@@ -67,6 +67,49 @@ def _wmo_description(code: int) -> str:
 
 _geocode_cache: Dict[str, Dict[str, Any]] = {}
 
+# Common English country names → ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes
+# (Open-Meteo returns German names, so we need this for English→code matching)
+_COUNTRY_CODES: Dict[str, str] = {
+    "croatia": "hr", "kroatien": "hr",
+    "germany": "de", "deutschland": "de",
+    "austria": "at", "österreich": "at",
+    "switzerland": "ch", "schweiz": "ch",
+    "france": "fr", "frankreich": "fr",
+    "italy": "it", "italien": "it",
+    "spain": "es", "spanien": "es",
+    "portugal": "pt",
+    "greece": "gr", "griechenland": "gr",
+    "turkey": "tr", "türkei": "tr",
+    "netherlands": "nl", "niederlande": "nl",
+    "belgium": "be", "belgien": "be",
+    "poland": "pl", "polen": "pl",
+    "czech republic": "cz", "tschechien": "cz",
+    "hungary": "hu", "ungarn": "hu",
+    "romania": "ro", "rumänien": "ro",
+    "bulgaria": "bg", "bulgarien": "bg",
+    "sweden": "se", "schweden": "se",
+    "norway": "no", "norwegen": "no",
+    "denmark": "dk", "dänemark": "dk",
+    "finland": "fi", "finnland": "fi",
+    "uk": "gb", "united kingdom": "gb", "england": "gb",
+    "usa": "us", "united states": "us",
+    "canada": "ca", "kanada": "ca",
+    "australia": "au", "australien": "au",
+    "japan": "jp",
+    "china": "cn",
+    "india": "in", "indien": "in",
+    "brazil": "br", "brasilien": "br",
+    "mexico": "mx", "mexiko": "mx",
+    "morocco": "ma", "marokko": "ma",
+    "egypt": "eg", "ägypten": "eg",
+    "thailand": "th",
+    "indonesia": "id", "indonesien": "id",
+    "slovenia": "si", "slowenien": "si",
+    "serbia": "rs", "serbien": "rs",
+    "montenegro": "me",
+    "bosnia": "ba", "bosnien": "ba",
+}
+
 
 async def _geocode(location: str) -> Optional[Dict[str, Any]]:
     """Resolve a city name to lat/lon using Open-Meteo Geocoding API.
@@ -108,13 +151,31 @@ async def _geocode(location: str) -> Optional[Dict[str, Any]]:
     # If country hint provided, try to find a matching result
     best = results[0]
     if country_hint:
+        hint = country_hint.lower()
+        # Resolve English country names to ISO codes for matching
+        hint_code = _COUNTRY_CODES.get(hint, hint[:2])
+
+        matched = False
         for r in results:
             country = (r.get("country", "") or "").lower()
             country_code = (r.get("country_code", "") or "").lower()
-            if country_hint in country or country_hint == country_code:
+            # Match: hint in DE name, DE name in hint, ISO code, or exact city name
+            if (hint in country or country in hint
+                    or hint_code == country_code
+                    or hint == country_code):
                 best = r
+                matched = True
                 break
-        else:
+
+        if not matched:
+            # Prefer an exact city name match over the first result
+            for r in results:
+                if r.get("name", "").lower() == city_name.lower():
+                    best = r
+                    matched = True
+                    break
+
+        if not matched:
             logger.warning("[WEATHER] Country '%s' not found in results for '%s', using first match",
                           country_hint, city_name)