Heinrich Döring (mathematician)

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Heinrich Döring (born  April 23, 1913 in Homberg near Kassel , † around 1962 ) was a German mathematician and cryptologist . During the Second World War he worked in Inspection 7 Group VI (In 7 / VI), i.e. the cryptanalytical group of the High Command of the Army (OKH) based on Matthäikirchplatz, not far from the Bendler block , in Berlin.

Life

education

Born the son of a roofer , he graduated from high school in August 1933 at the Vilmar School (Theodor Heuss School since 1965) in his hometown . He then served voluntarily for half a year in the Kolberg labor camp before he began studying mathematics and economics at the University of Göttingen in the summer semester of 1934 . The exam as an actuary , he passed on 14 December 1938th A year later, on December 19, 1939, he received his doctorate . His supervisor was Edwin Lauprecht (1897–1987), an important German animal breeding scientist . The title of the dissertation is: "Theoretical and empirical investigations into the errors occurring in milk performance tests".

Military service

T52d in the Imperial War Museum in London

He was then called up for military service . At In 7 / VI he initially served in the rank of private before he was promoted to NCO on May 1, 1941 . Later he reached the rank of sergeant (equivalent to sergeant ). His Entzifferungserfolgen belonging fraction of a Hungarian grid wrench, a hand wrench similar to the later German pattern key 44 . In terms of defensive cryptology , i.e. the security of his own procedures, he discovered in the summer of 1942 that the Siemens secret writer T52a / b was easy to break if the operating personnel inadvertently sent two or more secret texts with the same or similar keys (see also: Depth ). He then showed that the T52c, which was then improved, was not much better and could also be cracked if a text made up of a thousand letters was available. The result was the T52d  (picture) , a further improved model of the secret writer; however, Döring was able to show in the following year 1943 that this was also unsafe, which ultimately led to the development of the T52e.

After the war

Institute for Farm Animal Genetics in Mariensee

In 1947 he went to the Max Planck Institute for Animal Breeding and Animal Nutrition (today the Institute for Farm Animal Genetics  (picture) of the Friedrich Loeffler Institute ) in Mariensee . In the following decade he wrote at least ten publications, mostly together with his doctoral supervisor, the last known in 1959. He did not participate in the 1962 commemorative publication on the occasion of Lauprecht's 65th birthday, so one can assume that he was about to died this time.

Fonts (selection)

literature

Web links

  • TICOM / I-58: Interrogation of Dr. Otto Buggisch of OKW / Chi. cryptomuseum.com
  • TICOM / I-78: Interrogation of Oberstlt. Mettig on the History and Achievements of OKH / AHA / In 7 / VI. ticomarchive.com

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Short biographies ( please enter the surname “Döring” in the search mask for “ Short biographies of the DMV ”), accessed on July 2, 2019.
  2. ↑ Frode Weierud and Sandy Zabell: German mathematicians and cryptology in WWII. Cryptologia, doi: 10.1080 / 01611194.2019.1600076 , p. 23.
  3. ^ Army Security Agency: Notes on German High Level Cryptography and Cryptanalysis . European Axis Signal Intelligence in World War II, Vol 4, Washington (DC), 1946 (May), pp. 4-10.
  4. ↑ Short biographies ( please enter the surname “Döring” in the search mask for “ Short biographies of the DMV ”), accessed on July 2, 2019.
  5. ↑ TICOM / I-58: Interrogation of Dr. Otto Buggisch of OKW / Chi. P. 6, cryptomuseum.com , accessed July 2, 2019.
  6. ↑ TICOM / I-78: Interrogation of Oberstlt. Mettig on the History and Achievements of OKH / AHA / In 7 / VI. Pp. 11–12, accessed on July 2, 2019.
  7. ↑ Frode Weierud and Sandy Zabell: German mathematicians and cryptology in WWII. Cryptologia, doi: 10.1080 / 01611194.2019.1600076 , p. 24.
personal data
SURNAME Döring, Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German mathematician and cryptologist
DATE OF BIRTH April 23, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Homberg (Efze)
DATE OF DEATH around 1962