German mathematicians and cryptology in WWII

By now, a great deal is known about the contributions of Alan Turing, I. J. Good, Max Newman, and other mathematicians who worked at Bletchley Park during World War II. But what about the other side? Until recently, very little was known about the German mathematicians who aided the Nazi war effort:...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cryptologia 2020-03, Vol.44 (2), p.97-171
Main Authors: Weierud, Frode, Zabell, Sandy
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
B-Dienst
Chi-Stelle
Erich Hüttenhain
Forschungsamt
Hans Rohrbach
In 7/VI
Mathematicians
OKW/Chi
Organizations
Pers Z
Referat Vauck
Rudolph Schauffler
Security
Walter Fricke
Werner Kunze
World War II
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Summary:By now, a great deal is known about the contributions of Alan Turing, I. J. Good, Max Newman, and other mathematicians who worked at Bletchley Park during World War II. But what about the other side? Until recently, very little was known about the German mathematicians who aided the Nazi war effort: who were they, where did they work, and what did they do? But now, thanks to the release of a large number of TICOM documents in recent years, an initial picture is beginning to emerge. In this article, we identify the most important mathematicians who worked in the different German cryptologic organizations during the war: who they were, how they were recruited, which organizations they were in, and what they did (when this is known). Although their successes never rivaled those of Bletchley Park, they did have successes, and these were sometimes due to the efforts of mathematicians who went on to have distinguished careers after the war. One question that motivated this study was to understand the reasons for the German communications security meltdown during the war: how they got the Enigma and Tunny security assessments partly right but mostly wrong. As will be seen, this was not due to a lack of talent: some of the very best German mathematicians contributed to their war effort. The answer lies instead in how these potentially very useful assets were actually used (in striking contrast with what happened at Bletchley Park).
ISSN:0161-1194
1558-1586
DOI:10.1080/01611194.2019.1600076