You are looking at the HTML representation of the XML format.
HTML is good for debugging, but is unsuitable for application use.
Specify the format parameter to change the output format.
To see the non HTML representation of the XML format, set format=xml.
See the complete documentation, or API help for more information. 
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<api>
  <compare fromrevid="1" torevid="2" xml:space="preserve">&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td colspan=&quot;2&quot; class=&quot;diff-lineno&quot;&gt;Zeile 9:&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td colspan=&quot;2&quot; class=&quot;diff-lineno&quot;&gt;Zeile 9:&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-context'&gt;&lt;div&gt;* [https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-announce Mailingliste neuer MediaWiki-Versionen]&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-context'&gt;&lt;div&gt;* [https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-announce Mailingliste neuer MediaWiki-Versionen]&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-context'&gt;&lt;div&gt;* [//www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Localisation#Translation_resources Lokalisiere MediaWiki für deine Sprache]&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-context'&gt;&lt;div&gt;* [//www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Localisation#Translation_resources Lokalisiere MediaWiki für deine Sprache]&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td colspan=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;+&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-addedline'&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;ins class=&quot;diffchange&quot;&gt;&lt;/ins&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td colspan=&quot;2&quot;&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-marker'&gt;+&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td class='diff-addedline'&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;ins class=&quot;diffchange&quot;&gt;[[Neue Seite]]&lt;/ins&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
</compare>
</api>