diff --git a/mycore-csl/src/main/java/org/mycore/csl/MCRCSLTransformer.java b/mycore-csl/src/main/java/org/mycore/csl/MCRCSLTransformer.java
index 6c8fc6979b..2dfe619636 100644
--- a/mycore-csl/src/main/java/org/mycore/csl/MCRCSLTransformer.java
+++ b/mycore-csl/src/main/java/org/mycore/csl/MCRCSLTransformer.java
@@ -127,8 +127,11 @@ private void returnTransformerInstance(MCRCSLTransformerInstance instance, Strin
         try {
             instance.getCitationProcessor().reset();
             instance.getDataProvider().reset();
-            instance.getCitationProcessor().setOutputFormat(format);
-            instance.getCitationProcessor().setOutputFormat(format);
+            if ("xml".equals(format)) {
+                instance.getCitationProcessor().setOutputFormat(new MCRCSLXMLOutputFormat());
+            } else {
+                instance.getCitationProcessor().setOutputFormat(format);
+            }
         } catch (RuntimeException e) {
             // if an error happens the instances may be not reset, so we throw away the instance
             LogManager.getLogger().error("Error while resetting transformer instance", e);
diff --git a/mycore-csl/src/main/java/org/mycore/csl/MCRCSLTransformerInstance.java b/mycore-csl/src/main/java/org/mycore/csl/MCRCSLTransformerInstance.java
index e24bee4de3..7be094730d 100644
--- a/mycore-csl/src/main/java/org/mycore/csl/MCRCSLTransformerInstance.java
+++ b/mycore-csl/src/main/java/org/mycore/csl/MCRCSLTransformerInstance.java
@@ -50,7 +50,12 @@ public MCRCSLTransformerInstance(String style, String format, AutoCloseable clos
         } catch (IOException e) {
             throw new MCRConfigurationException("Error while creating CSL with Style " + style, e);
         }
-        this.citationProcessor.setOutputFormat(format);
+
+        if ("xml".equalsIgnoreCase(format)) {
+            this.citationProcessor.setOutputFormat(new MCRCSLXMLOutputFormat());
+        } else {
+            this.citationProcessor.setOutputFormat(format);
+        }
     }
 
     public CSL getCitationProcessor() {
diff --git a/mycore-csl/src/main/java/org/mycore/csl/MCRCSLXMLOutputFormat.java b/mycore-csl/src/main/java/org/mycore/csl/MCRCSLXMLOutputFormat.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..3f295f56f3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/mycore-csl/src/main/java/org/mycore/csl/MCRCSLXMLOutputFormat.java
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+/*
+ * This file is part of ***  M y C o R e  ***
+ * See https://www.mycore.de/ for details.
+ *
+ * MyCoRe is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+ * it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+ * the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+ * (at your option) any later version.
+ *
+ * MyCoRe is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+ * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+ * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+ * GNU General Public License for more details.
+ *
+ * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+ * along with MyCoRe.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+ */
+
+package org.mycore.csl;
+
+import de.undercouch.citeproc.csl.internal.SBibliography;
+import de.undercouch.citeproc.csl.internal.format.HtmlFormat;
+import de.undercouch.citeproc.output.Bibliography;
+import de.undercouch.citeproc.output.SecondFieldAlign;
+
+/**
+ * Class to enable XML output in the {@link de.undercouch.citeproc.CSL} processor.
+ * */
+public class MCRCSLXMLOutputFormat extends HtmlFormat {
+
+    @Override
+    public Bibliography makeBibliography(String[] entries, SBibliography bibliographyElement) {
+        SecondFieldAlign sfa = bibliographyElement.getSecondFieldAlign();
+        return new Bibliography(entries, "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?>\n<div class=\"csl-bib-body\">\n",
+            "</div>",
+            null, null, null, null, null, null, sfa);
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    protected String escape(String str) {
+        return str
+            .replaceAll("&", "&amp;")
+            .replaceAll("<", "&lt;")
+            .replaceAll(">", "&gt;")
+            .replaceAll("\"", "&quot;")
+            .replaceAll("'", "&apos;");
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public String getName() {
+        return "xml";
+    }
+}
diff --git a/mycore-csl/src/main/resources/components/csl/config/mycore.properties b/mycore-csl/src/main/resources/components/csl/config/mycore.properties
index 1bacf5ef65..9dc32363b6 100644
--- a/mycore-csl/src/main/resources/components/csl/config/mycore.properties
+++ b/mycore-csl/src/main/resources/components/csl/config/mycore.properties
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ MCR.CSL.DefaultLocale = en
 
 # via MCRModsItemDataProvider
 # MCR.ContentTransformer.mods2csl.Class=org.mycore.csl.MCRCSLTransformer
-# MCR.ContentTransformer.mods2csl.format=html
+# MCR.ContentTransformer.mods2csl.format=html | xml
 # MCR.ContentTransformer.mods2csl.style=elsevier-harvard
 # MCR.ContentTransformer.mods2csl.ItemProviderClass=org.mycore.mods.csl.MCRModsItemDataProvider
 # MCR.ContentTransformer.mods2csl.MIMEType=text/html; charset\="UTF-8"