Marcel Givierge

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Marcel Givierge (born  July 27, 1871 in Paris , †  August 17, 1931 in La Trimouille ) was a French brigadier general ( French Général de brigade ) and successful cryptologist in the First World War .

Life

The son of a haberdasher attended from 1892, the elite university Ecole Polytechnique near Paris, and then decided on the branch of service artillery of the French army . He studied English and Russian at the École supérieure de guerre ( German  about "Higher War School" ) in Paris before he was posted to the local military command in 1909. From January 23, 1912 he served, meanwhile promoted to Capitaine ( German  captain ), on the personal staff of the then Minister of War Alexandre Millerand (1859-1943).

During the First World War he was head of the cipher department ( French Chef de la Section du Chiffre ) in the Grand Quartier général ( equivalent to the German headquarters ). During this time, broke it, especially the code of the German submarines .

Shortly after the war, he wrote a number of specialist articles, such as 1922 Les machines à cryptographier et leurs applications dans la télégraphie sans fil ( German  about " key machines and their applications in radio technology " ), as well as several books on cryptology. One of the pieces of advice he has drawn up is: Chiffrez bien, ou ne chiffrez pas. En transmettant du clair, vous ne donnez qu'un renseignement à l'ennemi et vous savez lequel; en cipher, vous lui permettez de lire toute votre correspondance et cell de vos amis. ( German  "Encrypt well or not encrypt at all. If you send plain text , you only give the enemy one piece of information and you know which information; with poor encryption you allow him to read all of your correspondence and that of your friends." )

After he had been promoted to colonel ( German  colonel ) in 1925 , his military career ended in 1931 as brigadier general of the artillery. Previously, in December 1918, he had already been appointed officer of the Legion of Honor ( French Officier de la Légion d'Honneur ). This was followed on July 10, 1931, the appointment as Commandeur and on November 10, 1931 as Grand Officier .

The French statesman Georges Clemenceau (1841–1929) described him as a very good cryptologist. One of his books, the Cours de cryptographie , served in 1929 at the University of Poznan for the cryptological training of math students, including Marian Rejewski , Jerzy Różycki and Henryk Zygalski . As cryptanalysts , they succeeded in deciphering the German Enigma machine for the first time in 1932 . Later, during the Second World War , thousands were used by the German Wehrmacht to encrypt their secret communications. This could, unnoticed by the Germans, be " read " by the Western Allies . Marcel Givierge even influenced the course of the Second World War indirectly and posthumously .

Fonts (selection)

  • Cours de cryptographie. Deuxième édition. Berger-Levrault, Paris 1932.
  • Premières notions de cryptographie. Berger-Levrault, Paris 1935.
  • Course in Cryptography (Cryptographic Series). Aegean Park Press, 1996, ISBN 978-08941-2028-2 . (English translation of his Cours de cryptographie. )

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Master sheet of the Legion of Honor at culture.gouv.fr (French), accessed on August 13, 2019.
  2. ^ Friedrich L. Bauer: Historical Notes on Computer Science . Springer, Berlin 2009, p. 50. ISBN 3-540-85789-3 .
  3. ↑ Friedrich L. Bauer: Deciphered secrets. Methods and maxims of cryptology. 3rd, revised and expanded edition. Springer, Berlin a. a. 2000, p. 217. ISBN 3-540-67931-6 .
  4. ^ Library of Congress Authorities at lccn.loc.gov , accessed on August 13, 2019.
  5. ↑ Master sheet of the Legion of Honor at culture.gouv.fr (French), accessed on August 13, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Givierge, Marcel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French general and cryptanalyst
DATE OF BIRTH July 27, 1871
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris
DATE OF DEATH August 17, 1931
Place of death La Trimouille