Erich Hüttenhain

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Erich Hüttenhain (born January 26, 1905 in Siegen ; † December 1, 1990 in Brühl ) was a German cryptologist and is considered a leading cryptanalyst in the Third Reich . He was department head of the OKW / Chi, the encryption department of the High Command of the Wehrmacht and later for many years head of the Central Office for the Encryption (ZfCh) affiliated to the Federal Intelligence Service .

Live and act

Hüttenhain was the son of a vice-principal and after graduating from high school in 1924 studied in Siegen at the University of Marburg , the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main and the University of Münster . He studied mathematics with Heinrich Behnke (1898–1979) and astronomy with Martin Lindow (1880–1967), the director of the Münster University Observatory, and was born in Münster in 1933 with the work “Spatial infinitesimal orbits around the libration points in the straight line case of the ( 3 + 1) body "in astronomy in Lindow PhD . In 1936 he became a consultant in the encryption department ( Chi ) of the OKW , where he was headed by the Min.Rat. Wilhelm Fenner was hired after he had sent in his own encryption method. At OKW / Chi he was head of Group IV Analytical Cryptanalysis as a government councilor .

During his time in OKW / Chi he succeeded, among other things, in deciphering the Japanese Purple cipher machines (such as William Frederick Friedman in the USA ). He and his employees also succeeded in deciphering US rotor machines such as the M 138 A and the M-209 in North Africa. But when the Americans found out about it by deciphering Italian ciphers, they changed their system (including the Sigaba designed by Friedman ) and Hüttenhain was unable to break in again.

After the war he was brought to the USA by TICOM . For the Americans he built, among other things, a machine (which was already used by the Germans in World War II ) that deciphered Russian rotor machine codes. He also prepared reports on the successes of the Germans in the field of cryptography in World War II (such as deciphering the French naval code, the Polish diplomatic cipher or for the security of the Enigma and the secretary ). After his return he founded the "Study Society for Scientific Work" within the Gehlen Organization in 1947 , which formed the cornerstone for the later Central Office for Encryption (ZfCh) of the Federal Intelligence Service . His pseudonym at the Gehlen organization was Erich Hammerschmidt . He was on the scientific advisory board of the first official cryptographic agency of the federal government, Division 114 in the Foreign Ministry, headed by Adolf Paschke and founded in 1950. From 1956 to 1970 he headed the Central Office for Encryption as Ministerialdirigent, where Wilhelm Göing was his successor and from 1972 Otto Leiberich . A declared goal of Hüttenhain was that, in contrast to his experience in the Third Reich with numerous independent bodies, all the threads for the evaluation of cryptographic procedures lay with one agency.

Operation Rubicon of the BND and the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) began during Hüttenhain's tenure as head of the ZfCh . As part of this, the BND and CIA acquired the Swiss Crypto AG , a provider of encryption solutions. Within this framework, encryption products with weakened algorithms have been sold to countries and companies around the world for years. This should allow the intelligence services involved to make deciphering easier. Press reports indicate that the ZfCh played an important role within the BND in Operation Rubicon.

In 1926 he was a founding boy of the Arminia fraternity in Frankfurt .

Hüttenhain left a manuscript that he wrote around 1970 and in which he reports on his experiences as a cryptologist.

Fonts

  • Spatial infinitesimal orbits around the libration points in the straight-line case of the (3 + 1) bodies . In: Astronomical News . tape 250 , no. 18 , 1933, pp. 297-316 , doi : 10.1002 / asna.19332501802 .
  • Investigations into the stability of infinitesimal orbits around libration points . In: Astronomical News . tape 254 , no. 17 , 1934, pp. 281-296 , doi : 10.1002 / asna.19342541702 .
  • Stable libration solutions and zero speed surfaces . In: Astronomical News . tape 259 , no. 10 , 1936, pp. 149–158 , doi : 10.1002 / asna.19362591002 .
  • Erich Hüttenhain: On the secret writing of young stillings . In: Siegerland . Sheets of the Siegerländer Heimatverein e. V. Band 48 , issue 2, July 1971, p. 37-42 .
  • The secret writings of the Principality of Münster under Christoph Bernhard von Galen 1650–1678 (=  writings of the Historical Commission of Westphalia . Volume 9 ). Aschendorff Verlag, Münster 1974, ISBN 3-402-05609-7 .
  • Successes and failures of the German encryption services in World War II . In: Jürgen Rohwer, Eberhard Jäckel (Hrsg.): The radio reconnaissance and its role in the 2nd World War . An international conference in Bonn-Bad Godesberg and Stuttgart from 15. – 18. November 1978. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1979, ISBN 3-87943-666-5 , pp. 100-116 .

literature

  • Friedrich L. Bauer : Erich Hüttenhain: Decipherment 1939–1945 . In: Computer Science Spectrum . tape 31 , no. 3 , June 2008, p. 249-261 , doi : 10.1007 / s00287-008-0242-4 .
  • Friedrich L. Bauer: Historical Notes on Computer Science . Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg 2009, ISBN 978-3-540-85789-1 , Erich Hüttenhain: Decipherment 1939-1945, pp. 385–401 , doi : 10.1007 / 978-3-540-85790-7 (with photo by E. Hüttenhain, p. 388).
  • Otto Leiberich : From diplomatic code to trapdoor function - a hundred years of cryptography in Germany . In: Spectrum of Science . No. 6 , June 1999, p. 26-34 , doi : 10.1007 / s00287-008-0242-4 ( Spektrum.de ).
  • Otto Leiberich: From Diplomatic Code to Trapdoor Function - 100 Years of Cryptography in Germany , Spectrum Dossier Cryptography , 2001 (with photo by E. Hüttenhain).
  • Michael van der Meulen: Cryptology in the early Federal Republic . In: Cryptologia . tape 20 , no. 3 , July 1996, p. 202–222 , doi : 10.1080 / 0161-119691884915 (English).
  • Renate Tobies : Biographical lexicon in mathematics for post- doctoral persons (=  algorism, studies on the history of mathematics and natural sciences . Issue 58). Dr. Erwin Rauner Verlag, Augsburg 2006, entry Hüttenhain, Erich ( German Mathematicians Association, entry Hüttenhain, Erich [accessed on January 18, 2019]).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Published in Astronomische Nachrichten , Vol. 250, 1933, pp. 298–316 doi: 10.1002 / asna.19332501802
  2. ↑ a b Friedrich L. Bauer: Historical Notes on Computer Science . Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg 2009, ISBN 978-3-540-85789-1 , Erich Hüttenhain: Decipherment 1939-1945, pp. 388 , doi : 10.1007 / 978-3-540-85790-7 .
  3. ^ Leiberich, Spectrum of Science, June 1999; According to Leiberich, there are no more documents on this in Germany
  4. ^ Including later well-known mathematicians such as Karl Stein , head of department IV a (safety of proprietary processes), Gisbert Hasenjaeger . Others like Hans Rohrbach were in the cipher service of the Foreign Office ( Pers Z ). Other German mathematicians who were active in cryptography at the time are, according to Friedrich Bauer ( Deciphered Secrets , Springer Verlag), Wolfgang Franz , Gottfried Köthe , Ernst Witt , Helmut Grunsky , Werner Kunze , Georg Hamel and, at times, Oswald Teichmüller . According to a communication from Otto Leiberich quoted in Bauer, Historische Notizen zur Informatik , p. 388, Hüttenhain also specifically sought to protect mathematicians from being deployed at the front by employing them in his office.
  5. ↑ Bamford Body of Secrets , p. 22 brings the Americans' assessment of Hüttenhain's knowledge: It is almost certain that no major cryptoanalytic successes were achieved without his knowledge .
  6. ↑ Leiberich, loc. Cit.
  7. ↑ It was also judged by the German experts around Hüttenhain to be not completely secure, only its deciphering would have required a whole room of devices , Bamford, loc.cit. P. 23, quoted there from a TICOM report
  8. ↑ The titles of the works were published by the NSA , but they are only partially accessible to the public. In some cases, these also affected Pers Z , the encryption department of the Foreign Office, and other offices in the “Third Reich” .
  9. ^ Michael Wala: Digest of Papers: Germany and Intelligence Organizations: The Last Fifty Years in Review. (PDF) In: Annual Conference 1999, June 18-20, Tutzing, Germany. International Intelligence History Association, 1999, p. [3] , accessed January 20, 2019 (English).
  10. ^ Conference of the International Intelligence History Organization in Tutzing 1999: Germany and Intelligence Organizations - the last 50 years in Review ( Memento of July 24, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  11. ↑ formerly at Pers Z
  12. ↑ as well as Kurt Selchow, Rudolf Schauffler, Heinz Kuntze
  13. ^ The CIA secretly bought a company that sold encryption devices across the world. Then its spies sat back and listened. Retrieved March 18, 2020 (English).
  14. ^ H. de Rouet: 150 Years of the Frankfurt-Leipzig Burschenschaft Arminia , Frankfurt am Main 2010, p. 324
  15. ↑ Individual representations from the field of cryptology . One copy is in the Bavarian State Library. Friedrich Bauer gives a lecture on this in his book Historical Notes on Computer Science , Springer 2009, p. 389ff
personal data
SURNAME Hüttenhain, Erich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German cryptologist and cryptoanalyst in the Third Reich
DATE OF BIRTH January 26, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Wins
DATE OF DEATH December 1, 1990
Place of death Bruehl