Edouard Fleissner Von Wostrowitz

Edouard Fleissner von Wostrowitz (1825–1888), also spelt Fleißner, is remembered as the author of a short book on cryptography and as the proponent of a modified Cardan grille known as a '' turning grille''. He was born in

Lemberg Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in Western Ukraine, western Ukraine, and the List of cities in Ukraine, seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is o ...

, the son of an Austrian cavalry officer, and was expected to follow a military career. After serving in the Chevaux-légeres Regiment Number 6, he was appointed Commandant of the Officer School at Ödenberg in 1871 and promoted to full colonel in 1872. Before retirement, at the end of 1874, he was ennobled and became ''Kommandant Oberst Edouard Freiherr von Fleißner von Wostrowitz''. His book ''Handbuch der Kryptographie'' was published in Vienna, in 1881.

Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...

popularised the turning grille in his novel ''

Mathias Sandorf ''Mathias Sandorf'' is an 1885 adventure book by French writer Jules Verne. It was first serialized in ''Le Temps'' in 1885, and it was Verne's epic Mediterranean adventure. It employs many of the devices that had served well in his earlier nov ...

'', published in 1885, by using it as a plot device. Later, the German Army adopted turning grilles of various sizes during the First World War for immediate cipher traffic. References to Fleißner are found in German, French, Italian and Spanish. Kahn and Gaines mention him in English.

Kahn Kahn is a surname of German origin. ''Kahn'' means "small boat", in German. It is also a Germanized form of the Jewish surname Cohen, another variant of which is ''Cahn''.

describes the turning grille in his standard work ''

The Codebreakers ''The Codebreakers – The Story of Secret Writing'' () is a book by David Kahn, published in 1967, comprehensively chronicling the history of cryptography from ancient Egypt to the time of its writing. The United States government attempted to h ...

'' but gives the name Fleissner only in relation to Jules Verne and the appearance of ciphers in literature. {{DEFAULTSORT:Fleissner von Wostrowitz, Edouard 1825 births 1888 deaths Military personnel from Lviv People from the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria 19th-century Austrian people Austrian cryptographers Barons of Austria