LaTeX compiles <" a> to <ä>

Question

I write a German text in case that matters and use these packages:

\documentclass[12pt,a4paper]{article}
\usepackage{ucs}
\usepackage[utf8x]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[ngerman]{babel} 
\usepackage{cite}

... starting a document

\section{Einleitung}
Idee des "guten Willens" an

... there comes more text

When I compile this, the output reads Idee des "guten Willensän instead of Idee des "guten Willens" an

I heard LaTeX changes "a to ä automatically, so this could be the reason of my error. How can I turn this feature off in case it is the problem?

Answer 1

Here some variants to insert (german) quotes: I prefer the variants which make use of csquotes. Also don't load ucs or use utf8x unless you really need it.

\documentclass[]{scrbook}
\usepackage[ngerman]{babel}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{csquotes}
\MakeAutoQuote{«}{»}  % or \MakeAutoQuote {„}{“}  

\begin{document}
% ngerman shorthands:
"`Text mit \glq einem inneren Zitat\grq\ und weiter"'

%ngerman commands:
\glqq Text mit \glq einem inneren Zitat\grq\ und weiter\grqq\ und weiter

%direct utf8-input
„Text“

%with csquotes:

%1. \enquote (inner quotes uses automatically single quote signs):
\enquote{Text mit \enquote{einem innerem Zitat} und weiter} und weiter

%2. with the \MakeAutoQuote set above:
«Text mit «einem innerem Zitat» und weiter» und weiter

\end{document}