Herbert Julius von Denffer (born 4 June 1907, date of death unknown) was a German actuarial mathematician. He was born in

Narva Narva, russian: Нарва is a municipality and city in Estonia. It is located in Ida-Viru County, Ida-Viru county, at the Extreme points of Estonia, eastern extreme point of Estonia, on the west bank of the Narva (river), Narva river which ...

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Denffer worked as a cryptanalyst in Referat F, the Mathematical Referat, as part of the Inspectorate 7/VI, that was the

signals intelligence Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is intelligence-gathering by interception of ''signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly used in communication ( ...

agency of the

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previous ...

, before and during

. He would later work for the

General der Nachrichtenaufklärung ''General der Nachrichtenaufklärung'' was the signals intelligence agency of the German Army (1935-1945), Heer (German Army), before and during World War II. It was the successor to the former cipher bureau known as Inspectorate 7/VI in operatio ...

, the successor organization to the In 7/VI, specifically undertaking research in general theory of

cryptography Cryptography, or cryptology (from grc, , translit=kryptós "hidden, secret"; and ''graphein'', "to write", or ''-logia'', "study", respectively), is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of adver ...

Life

Denffer was the son of author and banker Alexander von Denffer from the aristocratic Denffer family. On 26 February 1926, he received his

Abitur ''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...

certificate from the Marienstiftsgymnasium Gymnasium.Humboldt University of Berlin Archive File: HU/UA Phil. Fak. 769 Denffer undertook 3 semesters of study at the

University of Tübingen The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (german: Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen; la, Universitas Eberhardina Carolina), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Wü ...

and 6 semesters at the

Humboldt University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative o ...

. Denffer was eventually awarded an academic scholarship for gifted students, the

Studienstiftung The German Academic Scholarship Foundation (German: , or ''Studienstiftung'' for short) is Germany's largest and most prestigious scholarship foundation. According to its statutes, it supports "the university education of young people who, on ac ...

to undertake advanced study in mathematics at Berlin. On 15 December 1933, he became an actuarial mathematician and worked at the Association of Public Life Insurance Institutions (german: Verband öffentlicher Lebensversicherungsanstalten) in Berlin. On 8 February 1935, he was promoted to

Dr. Phil Phillip Calvin McGraw (born September 1, 1950), better known as Dr. Phil, is an American television personality and author best known for hosting the talk show '' Dr. Phil''. He holds a doctorate in clinical psychology, though he ceased rene ...

with a theses titled: ''On the Bernstein theory of partial differential equations of the second order of the elliptical type'' (german: Über die Bernsteinsche Theorie der partiellen Differentialgleichungen zweiter Ordnung vom elliptischen Typus). At the end of the war, Denffer was named as chief of the (german: Entzifferung) cryptanalysis unit with KONA 6 at the end.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Denffer, Herbert 1907 births Year of death missing German cryptographers 20th-century German mathematicians People from Narva Emigrants from the Russian Empire to Germany