diff --git a/t/19-populate-unicode.t b/t/19-populate-unicode.t
index ab5fce1..adc76f9 100644
--- a/t/19-populate-unicode.t
+++ b/t/19-populate-unicode.t
@@ -7,10 +7,19 @@ use DBICTest;
 use Path::Class;
 use Data::Dumper;
 use IO::All;
-use utf8;
+use Test::mysqld;
+use utf8::all;
+use feature 'unicode_strings';
 
 # set up and populate schema
-ok( my $schema = DBICTest->init_schema(), 'got schema' );
+
+plan skip_all => 'Set $ENV{FIXTURETEST_DSN}, _USER and _PASS to point at MySQL DB to run this test'
+  unless ($ENV{FIXTURETEST_DSN});
+
+ok( my $schema = DBICTest->init_schema( dsn => $ENV{FIXTURETEST_DSN}, user => $ENV{FIXTURETEST_USER}, pass => $ENV{FIXTURETEST_PASS} ) );
+
+#ok( my $schema = DBICTest->init_schema(), 'got schema' );
+
 my $config_dir = io->catfile(qw't var configs')->name;
 
 # do dump
@@ -24,6 +33,10 @@ ok(
     'object created with correct config dir'
 );
 
+# DBI::mysql:database=test;host=localhost;port=5624
+
+
+
 DBICTest->clear_schema($schema);
 DBICTest->populate_schema($schema);
 
@@ -37,10 +50,10 @@ ok(
     ),
     "unicode dump executed okay"
 );
-
+DBICTest->clear_schema($schema);
 $fixtures->populate(
     {
-        connection_details => [ 'dbi:SQLite:' . io->catfile(qw[ t var DBIxClass.db ])->name, '', '' ],
+        connection_details => [  $ENV{FIXTURETEST_DSN}, $ENV{FIXTURETEST_USER}, $ENV{FIXTURETEST_PASS} ],
     	directory          => io->catfile(qw't var fixtures')->name,
         schema             => $schema,
         no_deploy          => 1,
@@ -51,3 +64,7 @@ $fixtures->populate(
 my $cd = $schema->resultset('CD')->find( { cdid => 5 });
 
 is($cd->title, "Unicode Chars ™ © • † ∑ α β « » → …", "Unicode chars found");
+
+my $umlaute_cd = $schema->resultset('CD')->find( { cdid => 6 } );
+
+is($umlaute_cd->title, "Übertreibung älterer Umlaute", "German special chars are correctly imported");
diff --git a/t/lib/DBICTest.pm b/t/lib/DBICTest.pm
index 8b6d155..61f0991 100755
--- a/t/lib/DBICTest.pm
+++ b/t/lib/DBICTest.pm
@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@ sub init_schema {
 
     my $schema;
 
-    my @connect_info = ($dsn, $dbuser, $dbpass, { AutoCommit => 1, sqlite_unicode => 1 });
+    my @connect_info = ($dsn, $dbuser, $dbpass, { AutoCommit => 1, mysql_enable_utf8 => 1 });
 
     if ($args{compose_connection}) {
       $schema = DBICTest::Schema->compose_connection(