diff --git a/modules/intermediate_format/ifweb.xql b/modules/intermediate_format/ifweb.xql
index 8eeeef04d66f6278ff510d2791fca2ac24428bc7..efb955fdf56d8941a740f6afc9fab8842e302ded 100644
--- a/modules/intermediate_format/ifweb.xql
+++ b/modules/intermediate_format/ifweb.xql
@@ -1,10 +1,10 @@
-(:~ 
+(:~
  : ifweb.xql offers a simple interface for creating the website specific BdN
  : intermediate format of a given resource.
- : 
+ :
  : @author Michelle Rodzis
  : @version 1.0
- : 
+ :
  :)
 xquery version "3.1";
 
@@ -24,17 +24,17 @@ declare variable $ifweb:replace-whitespace := true();
 declare function ifweb:main($resource as xs:string) as xs:string? {
     let $doc := doc($config:sade-data || $resource)
     let $filename := substring-before($resource, '.xml') || "-if.xml"
-    
+
     return ifweb:transform($doc, $filename)
 };
 
 
-declare function ifweb:transform($doc as node()*, $filename as xs:string) 
+declare function ifweb:transform($doc as node()*, $filename as xs:string)
 as node()* {
     let $preprocessed-data := pre:preprocessing($doc/tei:TEI, $ifweb:replace-whitespace)
     let $intermediate-format := ident:walk($preprocessed-data, ())
     let $store := xmldb:store($config:sade-data, $filename, $intermediate-format)
-    
+
     return $intermediate-format
 };
 
@@ -44,12 +44,12 @@ $target-dir as xs:string) as node()* {
     let $preprocessed-data := pre:preprocessing($doc/tei:TEI, $ifweb:replace-whitespace)
     let $intermediate-format := ident:walk($preprocessed-data, ())
     let $store := xmldb:store($target-dir, $filename, $intermediate-format)
-    
+
     return $intermediate-format
 };
 
 
-declare function ifweb:complete-xml($author as xs:string, $xml as node()*) 
+declare function ifweb:complete-xml($author as xs:string, $xml as node()*)
 as node()* {
     let $filename := $author || "-full-if.xml"
     return ifweb:transform($xml, $filename)
@@ -61,17 +61,32 @@ $target-dir as xs:string) as node()* {
     return ifweb:transform($resource, $filename, $target-dir)
 };
 
-declare function ifweb:transform-split-xml($xml as node()*, $filename as xs:string, 
+declare function ifweb:transform-split-xml($xml as node()*, $filename as xs:string,
 $dir as xs:string) {
     let $preprocessed-data := pre:preprocessing($xml/*, $ifweb:replace-whitespace)
     let $intermediate-format := ident:walk($preprocessed-data, ())
-    let $content := 
-            element tei:div {
+
+    (: sometimes we have structural variance on chapter level - in these cases
+    tei:app is the root element of $xml, not tei:div. for the HTML serialization
+    of the structural variance to function properly we have to preserve the
+    tei:app :)
+    let $content :=
+        if($xml[self::tei:app]) then
+            element tei:app {
                 $xml/@*,
                 attribute id {generate-id($xml)},
                 $intermediate-format
             }
-    let $store := xmldb:store($dir, $filename, $content)
-    
+        else
+            ($xml/@*,
+            attribute id {generate-id($xml)},
+            $intermediate-format)
+
+    let $transformed :=
+            element tei:div {
+                $content
+            }
+    let $store := xmldb:store($dir, $filename, $transformed)
+
     return $intermediate-format
 };