Otto Buggisch

The American strip pusher M-138-A embodies one of the methods that OKW / Chi was able to break successfully

Towards the end of the war in July 1944, the Luftwaffe introduced the " clock " to cryptographically strengthen the Enigma I.

Otto Buggisch (born June 28, 1910 ; † September 15, 1991 ) was a German mathematician with a doctorate who was entrusted with deciphering enemy communications as a cryptanalyst in the encryption department of the Wehrmacht High Command (OKW / Chi) during the Second World War . He also dealt with the security control of his own key procedures . He recognized the cryptographic weaknesses of the rotor key machine Enigma used by the German armed forces to encrypt their secret communications .

Buggisch graduated from the Ludwig-Georgs-Gymnasium (LGG) in Darmstadt in 1928 . This was followed by studies at the TH (today TU) Darmstadt with the main subjects pure mathematics and physics and the minor applied mathematics. In 1932 the scientific examination for the higher teaching post took place, in 1934 the state examination for study assessor .

After his mathematical dissertation with the title “On the rarity of equations with affect”, which he, supervised by Udo Wegner (1902–1989), graduated from the Technical University of Darmstadt in 1938 , he worked during the war with the military rank of sergeant (Sergeant) in inspection 7, group VI at OKH / Chi . Immediately after the war, he was questioned extensively about his work by interrogation specialists from the Allied Target Intelligence Committee (TICOM) . Much of the information available about his activity comes from the interrogation protocols that were classified as TOP SECRET at the time and are now publicly available. So his work was very diverse. He dealt with varying degrees of success with methods used by British and US Americans, such as TypeX , C-36, M-209 and the Strip Cipher System M-138 (see picture), as well as with Soviet methods, most recently with the voice encryption method " X2 ". In addition, he examined the security of his own procedures, such as T52 , T43 , SZ 40 and the Enigma I used by the German army .

He was very familiar with the basic attack methods , such as the use of Cribs , which were also used with great success by the Allies under the code name " Ultra " to decipher the Enigma , and recognized some weaknesses in the German cryptographic method. In addition, Buggisch was familiar with the Enigma's newly developed and partially introduced cryptographic enhancements towards the end of the war, such as the Enigma clock (see picture) and the gap filler roller , as the Allies learned from interrogations after the war.

Before the war he taught at the Alten Realgymnasium Darmstadt (1938) and at the high school for boys in Bingen (1938–39). In May 1939 he was called up to serve as a pioneer in the Wehrmacht. Although he was not a party member, he was appointed to the faculty during military service in 1943. In April 1946 he was released from captivity. From 1948 to 1966 he taught at the Ludwig-Georgs-Gymnasium , in the preparatory college for foreign students in Darmstadt (1966–1969), and finally as senior teacher in the university service at the Mathematical Institute of the TH-Darmstadt (1969–1972).

literature

• Friedrich L. Bauer : Deciphered Secrets. Methods and maxims of cryptology. 3rd, revised and expanded edition. Springer, Berlin a. a. 2000, ISBN 3-540-67931-6 .
• Renate Tobies : Biographical encyclopedia in mathematics of PhD persons (algorism, studies on the history of mathematics and natural sciences, edited by Menso Folkerts, issue 58). Dr. Erwin Rauner Published by Augsburg 2006
• Rainer Klump : 350 years of LGG: reform and continuity. 1979

Web links

• Otto Buggisch in the Mathematics Genealogy Project (English)
• TICOM archive , accessed: March 30, 2015.
• Photo of the “gap filler roller” , accessed: April 8, 2015.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Wolfgang Uwe Eckart, Volker Sellin, Eike Wolgast: The University of Heidelberg in National Socialism Springer-Verlag, 2006, p. 1065, accessed: March 30, 2015
2. ↑ About the rarity of equations with affect Title of his dissertation, Technische Universität Darmstadt, 1938, accessed: March 30, 2015. It was published in Deutsche Mathematik, Volume 2, 1937, pp. 685–690.
3. ^ Army Security Agency: Notes on German High Level Cryptography and Cryptanalysis . European Axis Signal Intelligence in World War II, Vol 2, Washington (DC), 1946 (May), p. 89. Retrieved March 30, 2015. PDF; 7.5 MB ( memento of the original from June 11, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ^ Army Security Agency: Notes on German High Level Cryptography and Cryptanalysis . European Axis Signal Intelligence in World War II, Vol 2, Washington (DC), 1946 (May), p. 77. Retrieved March 30, 2015. PDF; 7.5 MB ( memento of the original from June 11, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
5. ↑ TICOM I-58: Interrogation of Dr. Otto Buggisch of OKW / Chi . 1945 (August). Accessed: March 30, 2015. PDF; 3.1 MB