diff --git a/basyx/aas/adapter/xml/xml_deserialization.py b/basyx/aas/adapter/xml/xml_deserialization.py
index 26ac82c89..5eaa868fa 100644
--- a/basyx/aas/adapter/xml/xml_deserialization.py
+++ b/basyx/aas/adapter/xml/xml_deserialization.py
@@ -85,7 +85,7 @@ def _tag_replace_namespace(tag: str, nsmap: Dict[str, str]) -> str:
     """
     split = tag.split("}")
     for prefix, namespace in nsmap.items():
-        if namespace == split[0][1:]:
+        if prefix and namespace == split[0][1:]:
             return prefix + ":" + split[1]
     return tag