diff --git a/ai-compliance-sdk/internal/ucca/authority_router.go b/ai-compliance-sdk/internal/ucca/authority_router.go
index 98d006bf..e9737241 100644
--- a/ai-compliance-sdk/internal/ucca/authority_router.go
+++ b/ai-compliance-sdk/internal/ucca/authority_router.go
@@ -74,6 +74,10 @@ func (c *LegalRAGClient) Retrieve(ctx context.Context, query string, topK int) (
 		}
 	}
 
+	// Embed the query ONCE and stash it in ctx so the concurrent per-collection searches
+	// below reuse it instead of each re-embedding (was N remote round-trips on dev/OVH).
+	ctx = c.withQueryEmbedding(ctx, query)
+
 	out := make([][]LegalSearchResult, len(collections))
 	var wg sync.WaitGroup
 	for i, coll := range collections {
diff --git a/ai-compliance-sdk/internal/ucca/concept_ontology.go b/ai-compliance-sdk/internal/ucca/concept_ontology.go
index f56f8147..7dad8e7d 100644
--- a/ai-compliance-sdk/internal/ucca/concept_ontology.go
+++ b/ai-compliance-sdk/internal/ucca/concept_ontology.go
@@ -48,12 +48,12 @@ var legalConceptOntology = []conceptNorm{
 // ConceptNorms returns the load-bearing norm_ids for the concepts named in the
 // query (dedup, order-preserving). Empty if no concept is named.
 func ConceptNorms(query string) []string {
-	q := strings.ToLower(query)
+	q := normalizeGerman(query)
 	seen := map[string]bool{}
 	out := []string{}
 	for _, cn := range legalConceptOntology {
 		for _, kw := range cn.keywords {
-			if strings.Contains(q, kw) {
+			if strings.Contains(q, normalizeGerman(kw)) {
 				for _, nid := range cn.normIDs {
 					if !seen[nid] {
 						seen[nid] = true
diff --git a/ai-compliance-sdk/internal/ucca/embed_cache.go b/ai-compliance-sdk/internal/ucca/embed_cache.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..40679a56
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ai-compliance-sdk/internal/ucca/embed_cache.go
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+package ucca
+
+import "context"
+
+type embCacheKeyT struct{}
+
+var embCacheKey embCacheKeyT
+
+type embCacheEntry struct {
+	query string
+	vec   []float64
+}
+
+// embedForQuery returns the query embedding, reusing a value precomputed for the SAME
+// query and stashed in ctx by withQueryEmbedding. This collapses the Authority Router's
+// per-collection fan-out from N embeddings to ONE — decisive when the embedding endpoint
+// is remote (dev/OVH), where N round-trips dominated /retrieve latency. Falls back to a
+// fresh embedding when nothing is cached (direct Search / SearchCollection callers).
+func (c *LegalRAGClient) embedForQuery(ctx context.Context, query string) ([]float64, error) {
+	if v, ok := ctx.Value(embCacheKey).(*embCacheEntry); ok && v.query == query && len(v.vec) > 0 {
+		return v.vec, nil
+	}
+	return c.generateEmbedding(ctx, query)
+}
+
+// withQueryEmbedding precomputes the query embedding once and stashes it in ctx so the
+// concurrent per-collection searches reuse it instead of each re-embedding. Best-effort:
+// on embed error the ctx is returned unchanged and callers fall back to per-call embedding.
+func (c *LegalRAGClient) withQueryEmbedding(ctx context.Context, query string) context.Context {
+	if vec, err := c.generateEmbedding(ctx, query); err == nil && len(vec) > 0 {
+		return context.WithValue(ctx, embCacheKey, &embCacheEntry{query: query, vec: vec})
+	}
+	return ctx
+}
diff --git a/ai-compliance-sdk/internal/ucca/intent.go b/ai-compliance-sdk/internal/ucca/intent.go
index abed232b..be4f27ec 100644
--- a/ai-compliance-sdk/internal/ucca/intent.go
+++ b/ai-compliance-sdk/internal/ucca/intent.go
@@ -10,10 +10,10 @@ import "strings"
 // this evidence") instead of guessing the format. Returns "" (neutral) when no
 // clear task is signalled. First tier of ~20-30 intent types.
 func DetectIntent(query string) string {
-	q := " " + strings.ToLower(query) + " "
+	q := " " + normalizeGerman(query) + " "
 	has := func(subs ...string) bool {
 		for _, s := range subs {
-			if strings.Contains(q, s) {
+			if strings.Contains(q, normalizeGerman(s)) {
 				return true
 			}
 		}
diff --git a/ai-compliance-sdk/internal/ucca/legal_rag_client.go b/ai-compliance-sdk/internal/ucca/legal_rag_client.go
index db4993b7..cf13d2bd 100644
--- a/ai-compliance-sdk/internal/ucca/legal_rag_client.go
+++ b/ai-compliance-sdk/internal/ucca/legal_rag_client.go
@@ -105,7 +105,7 @@ func (c *LegalRAGClient) searchInternal(ctx context.Context, collection string,
 		}
 	}
 
-	embedding, err := c.generateEmbedding(ctx, query)
+	embedding, err := c.embedForQuery(ctx, query)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to generate embedding: %w", err)
 	}
diff --git a/ai-compliance-sdk/internal/ucca/text_norm.go b/ai-compliance-sdk/internal/ucca/text_norm.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..0c746118
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ai-compliance-sdk/internal/ucca/text_norm.go
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+package ucca
+
+import "strings"
+
+// normalizeGerman lowercases and folds German umlauts / ß to their ASCII digraphs
+// (ä→ae, ö→oe, ü→ue, ß→ss) so keyword matching is insensitive to whether the user
+// typed "Prüfe" or "Pruefe", "Datenschutzerklärung" or "Datenschutzerklaerung".
+// Applied to BOTH the query and the keyword lists in the German-text matchers.
+func normalizeGerman(s string) string {
+	return umlautFolder.Replace(strings.ToLower(s))
+}
+
+var umlautFolder = strings.NewReplacer(
+	"ä", "ae", "ö", "oe", "ü", "ue", "ß", "ss",
+)
diff --git a/ai-compliance-sdk/internal/ucca/umlaut_test.go b/ai-compliance-sdk/internal/ucca/umlaut_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..d65b606f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ai-compliance-sdk/internal/ucca/umlaut_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+package ucca
+
+import "testing"
+
+func TestDetectIntentUmlautFold(t *testing.T) {
+	cases := map[string]string{
+		"Pruefe meine Datenschutzerklaerung.": "review",     // ASCII digraph
+		"Prüfe meine Datenschutzerklärung.":   "review",     // umlaut
+		"Ueberpruefe das Impressum":           "review",     // ASCII "überprüfe"
+		"Was ist eine TOM?":                   "definition", // unchanged
+	}
+	for q, want := range cases {
+		if got := DetectIntent(q); got != want {
+			t.Errorf("DetectIntent(%q)=%q want %q", q, got, want)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+func TestConceptNormsUmlautFold(t *testing.T) {
+	// ASCII "datenschutzerklaerung" must resolve to the same core norms as the umlaut form.
+	ascii := ConceptNorms("Was gehoert in eine Datenschutzerklaerung?")
+	umlaut := ConceptNorms("Was gehört in eine Datenschutzerklärung?")
+	if len(ascii) == 0 {
+		t.Errorf("ConceptNorms(ASCII datenschutzerklaerung) returned none")
+	}
+	if len(ascii) != len(umlaut) {
+		t.Errorf("ASCII vs umlaut concept norms differ: %v vs %v", ascii, umlaut)
+	}
+}