diff --git a/src/Symfony/Component/Serializer/Normalizer/AbstractObjectNormalizer.php b/src/Symfony/Component/Serializer/Normalizer/AbstractObjectNormalizer.php
index 9b9b9fb4fa243..5c708ae8a436b 100644
--- a/src/Symfony/Component/Serializer/Normalizer/AbstractObjectNormalizer.php
+++ b/src/Symfony/Component/Serializer/Normalizer/AbstractObjectNormalizer.php
@@ -329,6 +329,16 @@ public function denormalize($data, $type, $format = null, array $context = [])
         $object = $this->instantiateObject($normalizedData, $type, $context, $reflectionClass, $allowedAttributes, $format);
         $resolvedClass = $this->objectClassResolver ? ($this->objectClassResolver)($object) : \get_class($object);
 
+        if (\is_string($data) && 'xml' === $format && $this->classMetadataFactory->hasMetadataFor($type)) {
+            $attributes = $this->classMetadataFactory->getMetadataFor($type)->getAttributesMetadata();
+            foreach ($attributes as $attribute) {
+                if ('#' === $attribute->getSerializedName()) {
+                    $normalizedData = ['#' => $data];
+                    break;
+                }
+            }
+        }
+
         foreach ($normalizedData as $attribute => $value) {
             if ($this->nameConverter) {
                 $attribute = $this->nameConverter->denormalize($attribute, $resolvedClass, $format, $context);
diff --git a/src/Symfony/Component/Serializer/Tests/Normalizer/AbstractObjectNormalizerTest.php b/src/Symfony/Component/Serializer/Tests/Normalizer/AbstractObjectNormalizerTest.php
index a45722423f8e8..0921df8ec7b94 100644
--- a/src/Symfony/Component/Serializer/Tests/Normalizer/AbstractObjectNormalizerTest.php
+++ b/src/Symfony/Component/Serializer/Tests/Normalizer/AbstractObjectNormalizerTest.php
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
 use PHPUnit\Framework\TestCase;
 use Symfony\Component\PropertyInfo\Extractor\PhpDocExtractor;
 use Symfony\Component\PropertyInfo\Type;
+use Symfony\Component\Serializer\Annotation\SerializedName;
 use Symfony\Component\Serializer\Exception\InvalidArgumentException;
 use Symfony\Component\Serializer\Exception\NotNormalizableValueException;
 use Symfony\Component\Serializer\Mapping\ClassDiscriminatorFromClassMetadata;
@@ -24,6 +25,7 @@
 use Symfony\Component\Serializer\Mapping\Factory\ClassMetadataFactory;
 use Symfony\Component\Serializer\Mapping\Factory\ClassMetadataFactoryInterface;
 use Symfony\Component\Serializer\Mapping\Loader\AnnotationLoader;
+use Symfony\Component\Serializer\NameConverter\MetadataAwareNameConverter;
 use Symfony\Component\Serializer\Normalizer\AbstractObjectNormalizer;
 use Symfony\Component\Serializer\Normalizer\DenormalizerInterface;
 use Symfony\Component\Serializer\Normalizer\ObjectNormalizer;
@@ -227,6 +229,26 @@ public function hasMetadataFor($value): bool
         $this->assertInstanceOf(DummySecondChildQuux::class, $normalizedData->quux);
     }
 
+    public function testDenormalizeXmlStringNodeWithoutAttributesToObject()
+    {
+        $denormalizer = $this->getDenormalizerForStringNode();
+        // if an xml-node can have children which should be deserialized as string[]
+        // and only one child exists
+        $object = $denormalizer->denormalize('string-value', DummyObjectWithOptionalAttributes::class, 'xml');
+        $this->assertInstanceOf(DummyObjectWithOptionalAttributes::class, $object);
+        $this->assertEquals('string-value', $object->value);
+        $this->assertNull($object->foo);
+    }
+
+    public function getDenormalizerForStringNode()
+    {
+        $denormalizer = new AbstractObjectNormalizerWithMetadataAndNameConverter();
+        $serializer = new Serializer([$denormalizer]);
+        $denormalizer->setSerializer($serializer);
+
+        return $denormalizer;
+    }
+
     /**
      * Test that additional attributes throw an exception if no metadata factory is specified.
      */
@@ -302,6 +324,44 @@ class StringCollection
     public $children;
 }
 
+class AbstractObjectNormalizerWithMetadataAndNameConverter extends AbstractObjectNormalizer
+{
+    public function __construct()
+    {
+        $classMetadataFactory = new ClassMetadataFactory(new AnnotationLoader(new AnnotationReader()));
+        parent::__construct($classMetadataFactory, new MetadataAwareNameConverter($classMetadataFactory));
+    }
+
+    protected function extractAttributes($object, $format = null, array $context = [])
+    {
+    }
+
+    protected function getAttributeValue($object, $attribute, $format = null, array $context = [])
+    {
+    }
+
+    protected function setAttributeValue($object, $attribute, $value, $format = null, array $context = [])
+    {
+        $object->$attribute = $value;
+    }
+}
+
+class DummyObjectWithOptionalAttributes
+{
+    /**
+     * @SerializedName("#")
+     *
+     * @var string
+     */
+    public $value;
+    /**
+     * @SerializedName("@foo")
+     *
+     * @var string
+     */
+    public $foo = null;
+}
+
 class DummyCollection
 {
     /** @var DummyChild[] */