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This page is about the famous Enigma cipher machine, well known for
the vital role it played during WWII.
Below are descriptions of the various models,
their manufacturers,
some accessories,
patents,
computer simulations
and codebreaking.
There is no such thing as the Enigma. In fact, Enigma is
the brand name of a series of cipher machines,
developed before and during WWII,
some of which are compatible with each other,
and some of which are not.
If your are interested in the history of Enigma,
you might want to check
the Enigma Family Tree,
the Enigma Timeline, or
the Enigma Glossary.
Before and during WWII, Enigma has been the inspiration for many
other designs of rotor cipher machines, like the British
Typex and
the American Sigaba.
And even after WWII, some cipher machines were based on the
same principle, such as the American KL-7,
the Russian Fialka and
the Swiss Nema.
If you own an Enigma machine, you may want to check our page
about Enigma restoration materials.
We are always interested in acquiring new equipment, documents
and other artefacts for the museum.
If you have something to offer, please contact us.
 Enigma history
Enigma family tree
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Many attempts have been made to describe the working principle of
the Enigma machine on the internet. Some of these are correct, and
some are not. This is yet another attempt.
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Several years ago, when creating the Enigma-E,
an electronic replica of the Enigma,
we had trouble understanding the precise
operating principle of the Enigma machine;
something that is vital for a reliable simulation.
At the time, most websites only gave a rough description
of the machine and important details were omitted.
We then created out own description and made it publicly available.
More information
Wheel wiring
If you are interested in building your own electronic Enigma machine,
you might want to learn more about the Enigma-E
self-build kit.
It is compatible with a real Enigma machine.
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Before and during WWII, many different Enigma machines were
developed and built. Some of these machines are compatible with
each other, but others are not. Below is a list of some of these
machines that we've seen over the years. Please note that
this list is by no means complete and will be subject to future
changes, as and when we find 'new' machines.
Each machine is described briefly below.
Click the image for a full description with many photographs.
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The Enigma I was developed especially for the German Reichswehr
(later: Wehrmacht)
and forms the basic design on which all German Army Enigma machines are
based. Is has three moving wheels, a fixed Reflector (Umkehrwalze, UKW)
and a plug board (Steckerbrett).
The Standard Naval Enigma (M3) is functionally identical
to this machine, but has letters on the wheels rather than numbers.
More information
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On 2 February 1942, the Kriegsmarine (German Navy) suddenly
introduced this new version of the Enigma machine. The M4 had
4 wheels instead of the usual 3 and caused great upset with the
allied codebreakers.
The M4 was used exclusively by the U-Boot division of the
German Navy. The rest of the Navy kept using the M3.
More information
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At some point in the Enigma family tree, a machine was developed
with an improved wheel-turnover mechanism and a counter. It was
called the Zählwerk Enigma and was used by
various intarnational commercial and military customers.
The later Enigma G (model G31) was based on this Enigma model.
More information
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The Enigma G (model G31) was a slighly smaller variant of the
Zählwerk Enigma (see above). The machine was sold to
various international customers and was also used
by the German Secret Service, the Abwehr, during WWII.
The machine is sometime referred to as the Abwehr Enigma
although this name is actually incorrect. The machine was
used by other customers as well and the Abwehr also used
other machines than the Enigma G.
More information
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The Enigma D was developed in 1926 as the successor to the
Enigma C. It is often referred to as the
Commercial Enigma.
The official model number was A26
and it was given the internal designator Ch. 8.
The image on the right shows a rare sample of the Commercial Enigma
that was found in 2011.
More information
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The Enigma K can be regarded as a series of 'special' machines
based on the design of the Enigma D. The official
model number is A27 and the first internal designator for this
machine is Ch. 11b. The machine was introduced in 1927, but it
wasn't before 1936 that the letter K was used in the serial number.
Other machines, such as the
Tirpitz (T),
the KD and
the Swiss K, belong to this family.
More information
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The most famous version of the Enigma-K
is the one that was produced during WWII especially for the Swiss Army.
For this reason it is often called the Swiss-K.
It was modified by the Swiss Army and was supplied with an external
lamp panel and a power supply.
As the Swiss knew that the Germans were reading the Swiss Enigma traffic,
they designed the NEMA as a replacement.
More information
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The Enigma KD was a rare variant of the Enigma K,
that was used by Mil Amt, the successor of the Abwehr.
It is based on the Enigma K but has wheels with 9 notches
each, plus a rewirable reflector (UKW-D).
More information
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During WWII, the Germans used a special Enigma machine for
the German Railway (Reichsbahn).
It was basically a standard Enigma K with rewired wheels
and a rewired UKW.
Enigma traffic from the German Reichsbahn was first encountered
by the codebreakers at BP in July 1940 and
later in February 1941.
More information
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The Enigma T, codenamed Tirpitz, was developed during WWII by the Germans
especially for use by the Japanese Army. It was based on the
commercial Enigma K, but had differently wired wheels and multiple
turnovers on each wheel. Furthermore, it had an Eintrittswalze (ETW)
that was wired differently than all other Enigma machines.
More information
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In 1923, the first machine under the Enigma brand appeared on
the market. It was the Enigma A that was large and bulky.
It resembled an electric typewriter and printed its output
directly on paper.
Although we've never actually seen the machine, and therefore
have no good photographs available, we did find an
accurate description of the machine by Arthur Scherbius himself.
More information
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The Enigma B was developed in 1924 as the successor to the
Enigma A.
The rotating print head of the Enigma A was replaced
by a series of type bars, like the ones commonly
found on typewriters.
The machine looks very similar to a standard typewriter and is very well
finished. Nevertheless, there were many production problems and
it appeared very difficult to operate it reliably at higher printing
speeds. In 1926 it was replaced by a modified and improved version,
which probably looked similar to the 1924 model.
Eventually, in 1929, it was replaced by the Enigma H
(see below) which was far more bulky.
More information
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The Enigma H was the last model in the range of Schreibende Enigma
(printing Enigma) machines. It was developed and introduced in 1929, as
the successor to the Enigma B.
The official model number for this machines was H29 and the internal
designator was Ch. 14, whilst it was called
Enigma II by the Reichswehr (the predecessor of the Wehrmacht).
This machine was sometimes used as a printer for
a modified Enigma I
or Enigma G.
More information
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The Enigma C was the first machine that used light bulbs (Glühlampen)
for its output. It was introduced in 1924 as a lower-cost alternative
to the large and bulky typewriter-style machines such as the
Enigma A.
The letters on the keyboard and on the lamp panel are organised in the
order of the alphabet.
More information
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The Enigma Z is a rather strange variant of the light bulb machine
(Glühlampenmaschine) as it only has 10 keys and 10 lamps, containing
the numbers 0 thru 9.
Not much is known about this machine, although it is likely that there
were two different versions of it; one based on the Enigma D
and the other based on the Zählwerk Enigma (G).
More information
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During WWII, some attempts were made to make Enigma traffic more
secure. In January 1944, a field-rewirable reflector, called UKW-D,
was introduced by the Luftwaffe (German Air Force).
It is little known that an UKW-D was also developed for the Kriegsmarine
(Navy).
The UKW-D shown here is such a rare naval variant.
More information
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In another attempt to make the Enigma more secure, the Luftwaffe
introduced the Enigma Uhr in July 1944.
It was a small wooden box that connected directly to the
Steckerbrett of the Enigma by means of 20 cables.
With a large wooden knob, the operator
could quickly select any of the 40 available alternative wirings.
More information
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Lückenfüllerwalze
wanted item
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Another measure to make the Enigma safer, was the so-called
Lückenfüllerwalze (gap-fill wheel)
that featured 26 user-configurable notches. This way, the
number and position of the notches of each wheel could be
changed frequently.
The Lückenfüllerwalze was planned to be used in combination
with UKW-D, but like UKW-D and the
Uhr it came too late.
More information
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The Power Supply Unit (PSU) shown here is very rare and was used with the
Enigma K machines
supplied to the Swiss Army and the Swiss Foreign Office. It can be connected
to a variety of mains voltages and has output terminals for 4 Enigma
machines.
More information
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For convenience a small printer was developed for Naval Enigma machines.
They could be fitted on top of an M3 or M4 machine and had an external
power supply unit.
When typing, the (de)ciphered text was printed on a 9mm paper strip.
More information
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In 1918, the first Enigma-related patent was registered by
Arthur Scherbius in Germany. Since then, numerous other inventions
have been patented by Scherbius and his collegues, in Germany
as well as in many other countries.
We've collected the most important Enigma-related patents on
a single page, which are also available for download.
More information
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In recent years, some real Enigma messages have been recovered
from the archives and from sunken U-boats and attempts have been
undertaken to break these messages again.
This section of the website deals with some real Enigma messages,
complete with the required settings of the machine, so that they
can be decoded on a simulator.
More information
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An Enigma machine uses small - rather unusual - lamps for its output.
These lamps have a common E10 fitting, but have a somewhat
flattened glass bulb. It is important to find these lamps, as ordinary
bulbs are too high and will penetrate the celluloid lamp film.
There are two variants: clear and half-opaque.
More information
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Many Enigma machines found today, are not in very good condition
and may require some work in order to get them going again.
In the past few years, various people have made an effort to produce
good and accurate reproduction parts in order to restore Enigma
machines. Some of these parts are available through the Crypto Museum.
More information
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Based on many years of research by Frode Weierud, we've been able
to put together the most accurate family tree of Enigma machines to date.
It shows the relationship between the various models and variants,
and provides a lot of additional information.
Please note that the tree is based on ongoing research and is therefore
subject to changes in the future.
More information
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It is sometimes thought that the Enigma was broken by
Colossus, the first electronic digital computer.
This was not the case, however.
The Enigma was broken manually (using hand methods) and with help of
an electro-mechanical device, called the
Bomba (Polish),
and Bombe (British).
The latter has been rebuilt and is now on public display at
Bletchley Park (UK).
More information
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Initially, Enigma machines were manufactured by the original company
Chiffriermaschinen AG (Aktiengesellschaft) in Berlin (Germany).
After the Germans acquired the Enigma patents, the name of
the company was changed to Heimsoeth und Rinke
and other companies were appointed to manufacture
Enigma machines under license.
Below is the complete list of Enigma manufacturers
[1]
with their official manufacturer's code
(except for the original manufacturer, who is listed first).
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Code
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Issued
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Name
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Address
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Chiffriermaschinen AG
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Steglitzerstraße 2
Berlin W 35
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aye
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Oct 1940
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Olympia
Büromaschinenwerke AG
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Mainzerhofplatz
Erfurt
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bac
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Feb 1941
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Ertel-Werk
für Feinmechanik
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Westendstr. 160
München
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gvx
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Jul 1941
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Konski & Krüger
Fabrik elektr. u. mechanischer Apparate
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Chausseestr. 117
Berlin N 4
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jla
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Sep 1941
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Chiffriermaschinengesellschaft
Heimsoeth und Rinke
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Uhlandstr. 136
Berlin-Wilmersdorf
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jmz
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Sep 1941
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Atlas-Werke AG
Maschinenfabrik
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Steinhöft 11
Bremen
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1. Document kindly supplied by Arthur Bauer [2].
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Below are digital copies of the original Enigma logo.
This logo has been recreated from scratch and is presented here
as a PDF file, in order to preserve the resolution.
The copyright of this logo belongs to us.
You may download and use these logo's for your
own - non-commercial - personal use.
For commercial use of the logo, please ask permission first.
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Every now and then, someone decides to built a replica of an Enigma machine.
Although the basic operating principle of the machine is pretty straightforward,
making a reproduction is not an easy task. Bear in mind that a single coding
wheel consists of over 300 individual parts!
Below are some links to people who have successfully created a replica.
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Enigma is arguably the first comercially successful implementation of
the rotor-based cipher machine. As its patents were registered in many
parts of the world, its design has been copied numerous times. Many of
the later machines, including the machines used by the Allied Forces
during WWII, were largely based on the design of the Enigma.
Here are some examples:
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Enigma Simulator for Windows
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In 2004, Dirk Rijmenants in Belgium released the first version of his
graphical Enigma simulator for Windows. With this program he won the
Superior Coding Award in the 2004 Planet Source Code Contest (PSC).
Since then, the program has been enhanced several times and is
currently considered one of the best Enigma Simulators available for
the Windows operating system.
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Version 7.0.1 now available 
Updated 7 December 2011.
The program simulates all known Enigma variants in great detail,
including appropriate skins and sound. Operation of the simulator
is very intuitive and online help is available at a click of the
mouse.
The image on the right shows a screen-shot of the M3 simulator.
Download simulator (off-site)
Other simulators, and simulators for other platforms, are
listed below.
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In the past few years, a number of Enigma computer simulations
have been developed for a variety of platforms. Below is a list
of popular Enigma simulations. Click any of the links, or click
the logo of your favorite operating system below.
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- Oberkommando des Heeres,
Liste der Fertigungskennzeichen für Waffen, Munition und Gerät
Reichsdrückerei Berlin 1944, reprinted by Pawlas, Nürnberg, 1977.
ISBN 3-88088-214-2
- Arthur Bauer, Foundation for German Technology
Historical Enigma documents kindly supplied for reproduction.
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© Copyright 2009-2013, Paul Reuvers & Marc Simons. Last changed: Saturday, 08 February 2014 - 15:38 CET
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Perl
