Scherbius & Ritter

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Scherbius & Ritter
legal form oHG, from 1929 KG
founding 1920
resolution 1936
Seat Berlin
Branch Electromechanics

The company Scherbius & Ritter was a 1920 to 1936 in Berlin existing German company.

history

The “ trading machine” (1923) was the first Enigma in a long model series

The electrical engineers Arthur Scherbius (1878–1929) and Ernst Richard Ritter (1882–1936) founded the company Scherbius & Ritter  oHG on April 1, 1920, based in Berlin on Schiffbauerdamm  30. It is to be distinguished from the company Dipl.-Ing. E. Richard Ritter & Co. (1911–1936), which sold electrical household appliances and in 1918 had commercially represented the prototype of a cipher machine. The company Scherbius & Ritter developed various technical products, with heating pads as the main item, for which Scherbius had bought patents for the so-called "Birka regulator" from Birka AB in Stockholm , which he further developed for the heating pad. It was also of Scherbius & Ritter a special encryption device developed, namely the first model (image) of the famous remainder thereafter Enigma . While this machine was being developed here, it was manufactured by the Securitas union , which founded Chiffriermaschinen AG (ChiMaAG) in 1923 . This was followed by further development, construction and production of the Enigma by ChiMaAG and also by their suppliers.  

On July 1, 1929, the trading company was converted into a limited partnership (KG). The now Scherbius & Ritter KG was no longer solvent from 1930/31 and went bankrupt in 1931; however, the bankruptcy was reversed due to the foreclosure sale of land and the transfer of a patent. Scherbius' widow Elisabeth and other members of the Scherbius family had to bear considerable financial disadvantages due to the losses of ChiMaAG as well as Scherbius & Ritter . An exchange of letters between Scherbius' widow and his mother describes "the end and the catastrophe of Arthur's founding". The company, which still existed on paper, was not finally dissolved until 1936.

The property at Königstrasse 40 was foreclosed, and Birka Regulator GmbH , founded in 1930 by Sun Vic Ltd , London , manufactured thermostats and switches there from 1931 to 1967 , only a small part for heating cushions, mainly for other applications.

literature

  • Friedrich L. Bauer : Deciphered Secrets. Methods and maxims of cryptology. 3rd, revised and expanded edition. Springer, Berlin et al. 2000, ISBN 3-540-67931-6 .
  • Friedrich L. Bauer: Historical Notes on Computer Science . Springer, Berlin 2009. ISBN 3-540-85789-3 .
  • Louis Kruh, Cipher Deavours: The commercial Enigma - Beginnings of machine cryptography . Cryptologia, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Taylor & Francis, Philadelphia PA 26.2002.1 (January). ISSN  0161-1194 Retrieved October 18, 2016. PDF; 0.8 MB
  • Arthur Scherbius: "Enigma" cipher machine . Elektrotechnische Zeitschrift (ETZ), November 1923, pp. 1035-1036. PDF; 2.5 MB.Retrieved October 20, 2016.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Commercial Register
  2. ↑ Arthur Scherbius: "Enigma" cipher machine . Elektrotechnische Zeitschrift (ETZ), November 29, 1923, p. 1036. PDF 0.7 MB . Retrieved October 20, 2016.
  3. ^ Friedrich L. Bauer: Historical Notes on Computer Science . Springer, Berlin 2009, p. 49. ISBN 3-540-85789-3 .
  4. ↑ Correspondence between the widow and Scherbius' mother

Coordinates: 52 ° 31 '12 "  N , 13 ° 22' 57"  E