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Tuesday 1 August 2012
Many models and versions of the Enigma machine are known by now.
The most common ones are the machines with 26 light bulbs, such as the
standard Service Enigma
used by the German Army before and during WWII.
These machines are described in great detail
elsewhere on this website.
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Far less well known are the machines that are known as the
Schreibende Enigma (printing Enigma). They were produced in
small quantities by the manufacturer Chiffriermaschinen AG in
Berlin (Germany) between 1923 and 1931. Three different models of the
printing Enigma are known: Enigma A,
Enigma B and
Enigma H.
In 2005, whilst on holiday in Europe, American tourist Eric Tischer
accidently photographed a machine that later turned out to be an
extremely rare Enigma H29 model in a military museum in Budapest.
The photo appeared on Wikipedia.
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Over the past few years, we've been trying to locate that machine
in order learn more about its inner secrets. This year we were lucky:
with help from some good friends in Austria and Hungary, we managed to
locate the museum that had an Enigma with an unknown number of wheels.
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On 1 August 2012, Crypto Museum was invited to the Hungarian
Museum of Military History
in Budapest.
Although we didn't know what to expect, we had
good hopes. The machine was no longer on public display, but
museum historian Dr. István Ravasz was so kind to have the machine
carried from the vaults into his office.
As we entered the office at 10 o'clock in the morning, we immediately
recognised the machine that was sitting on a small table
as being the very rare and special
Enigma Model H29;
the machine we had been looking for.
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We were so excited that we wanted to get our hands on the machine
straight away, but Dr. Ravasz insisted that we'd bring out a toast
first. The image above shows Marc Simons (Crypto Museum),
Günter Hütter (Austria), Kálmán Tóth (Hungary), Peter Klampferer (Austria)
and Dr. István Ravasz (Military Museum)
saying 'cheers' to the machine.
The photo was made by Paul Reuvers (Crypto Museum) who unfortunately
could not drink on this occasion as he was the driver.
Luckily Dr. Ravasz handed him the remains of the bottle so that
he could toast later.
The rest of the day we spent with the machine and we made over a
hundred photographs of it. We also made notes of missing parts,
in case someone would later decide to restore the machine.
Although the machine is a deteriorated state and many of its parts are
missing, it is nevertheless a unique piece of history.
A full description is now on our Enigma-H page.
The museum is currently
undergoing restoration
but is open to the general public again. Visiting the museum is really
worthwhile. There are great exhibits
and they even have the
grave of the unknown soldier.
We should like to thank our friends above for their tireless support
in tracking down the machine and accompanying us to the museum in Budapest.
Without their help, we doubt that we would ever have re-discovered the
Enigma H29 with serial number H-221 and have this great day.
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Wednesday 31 July 2013
Exactly one year later, we visited Budapest again to see how the re-discovered
Enigma H29 - with serial number H-211 - was now doing. We were pleasantly
surprised to learn that the H-221 had been given on loan to
the Hungarian Spy Museum just 100 metres from the Military Museum.
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The Hungarian Spy Museum is located in the Royal Cellars and provide
an interesting peek in some of Hungaria's most secret historical spy
equipment, ranging from Col War Stay-Behind radio sets to ultra modern
radio bugs. Many of the items have never been on display before.
The Enigma H29 is part of the secret equipment exhibition. It has a
proment place in the lineup and attracts a lot of attention. In the past
year, the machine has been cosmetically restored, so that the keyboard,
the Enigma batch and the wheels windows are now complete again.
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The image above shows part of the investigation team behind the reworked
Enigma H-221. At the far right is Crypto Museum Marc Simons. His colleague
Paul Reuvers is missing here as he shot the picture. More about the restoration
here.
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© Copyright 2009-2013, Paul Reuvers & Marc Simons. Last changed: Monday, 24 March 2014 - 20:15 CET
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