diff --git a/modules/intermediate_format/whitespace-handling.xqm b/modules/intermediate_format/whitespace-handling.xqm
index d1a3e0e832288038aca269ec5de6e964849f61d9..af0c7f6d34e8ed1aa5ea92efbb7fef5f0f71a4c7 100644
--- a/modules/intermediate_format/whitespace-handling.xqm
+++ b/modules/intermediate_format/whitespace-handling.xqm
@@ -52,8 +52,8 @@ declare default element namespace "http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0";
 declare function whitespace:text
     ( $text as text()*, $escape-char as xs:string? ) as text()* {
 
-    let $whitespace-node := $text[matches(., "[\s\n\r\t]") and normalize-space(.) = ""]
-    let $single-whitespace-between-nodes := $text = " "
+    let $whitespace-node := $text[matches(., "[\n\r\t]") and normalize-space(.) = ""]
+
     return
         if (not($whitespace-node)) then (
 
@@ -85,16 +85,3 @@ declare function whitespace:escape-text
 
     text {replace($text, '[\s]+', $escape)}
 };
-
-declare function whitespace:remove($nodes as node()*) as node()* {
-    for $node in $nodes
-    return
-        typeswitch ($node)
-        case text() return
-            if([matches($node, "[\s\n\r\t]") and normalize-space(.) = ""]) then
-                ()
-            else
-                $node
-        default return
-            $node
-};