function DirectoryExists(const Directory: string; FollowLink: Boolean = True): Boolean;
{$IFDEF MSWINDOWS} 
var
  Code: Cardinal;
  Handle: THandle;
  LastError: Cardinal;
begin
  Result := False;
  Code := GetFileAttributes(PChar(Directory));

  if Code <> INVALID_FILE_ATTRIBUTES then
  begin
    if faSymLink and Code = 0 then
      Result := faDirectory and Code <> 0
    else
    begin
      if FollowLink then
      begin
        Handle := CreateFile(PChar(Directory), GENERIC_READ, FILE_SHARE_READ, nil,
          OPEN_EXISTING, FILE_FLAG_BACKUP_SEMANTICS, 0);
        if Handle <> INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE then
        begin
          CloseHandle(Handle);
          Result := faDirectory and Code <> 0;
        end;
      end
      else if faDirectory and Code <> 0 then
        Result := True
      else
      begin
        Handle := CreateFile(PChar(Directory), GENERIC_READ, FILE_SHARE_READ, nil,
          OPEN_EXISTING, FILE_FLAG_BACKUP_SEMANTICS, 0);
        if Handle <> INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE then
        begin
          CloseHandle(Handle);
          Result := False;
        end
        else
          Result := True;
      end;
    end;
  end
  else
  begin
    LastError := GetLastError;
    Result := (LastError <> ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND) and
      (LastError <> ERROR_PATH_NOT_FOUND) and
      (LastError <> ERROR_INVALID_NAME) and
      (LastError <> ERROR_BAD_NETPATH);// <= Die entscheidende Zeile, die fehlte...
  end;
end;
{$ENDIF MSWINDOWS}
{$IFDEF POSIX}
var
  StatBuf, LStatBuf: _stat;
  LDirectory: UTF8String;
  Success: Boolean;
begin
  LDirectory := UTF8Encode(Directory);
  Success := stat(PAnsiChar(LDirectory), StatBuf) = 0;
  Result := Success and S_ISDIR(StatBuf.st_mode);

  if not Result and (lstat(PAnsiChar(LDirectory), LStatBuf) = 0) and
    S_ISLNK(LStatBuf.st_mode) then
  begin
    if Success then
      Result := S_ISDIR(StatBuf.st_mode)
    else if not FollowLink then
      Result := True;
  end;
end;
{$ENDIF POSIX}