Werner Liebknecht (born 1 June 1905 in Waltershausen) was a German engineer and Beamter at Referat Wa Prüf 7 of the

Waffenamt ''Waffenamt'' (WaA) was the German Army Weapons Agency. It was the centre for research and development of the Weimar Republic and later the Third Reich for weapons, ammunition and army equipment to the German Reichswehr and then Wehrmacht ...

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 ...

. He was responsible for the design and development of many of the cryptographic devices used by German Armed Forces during World War II, including the cipher teleprinter attachment, the SZ 40 and the Siemens and Halske T52 secure teleprinter.

Life

From 1911 to 1925, Liebknecht attended Volksschule and ''Oberrealschule'' in Sonneberg. Between 1925 and 1927, he studied

Electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

at the

Technical University of Munich The Technical University of Munich (TUM or TU Munich; german: Technische Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It specializes in engineering, technology, medicine, and applied and natural sciences. Establis ...

and between 1927 and 1931 he studied Communications engineering at

Technical University of Berlin The Technical University of Berlin (official name both in English and german: link=no, Technische Universität Berlin, also known as TU Berlin and Berlin Institute of Technology) is a public research university located in Berlin, Germany. It was ...

, and graduated with a

Dipl.-Ing. A ''Diplom'' (, from grc, δίπλωμα ''diploma'') is an academic degree in the German-speaking countries Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and a similarly named degree in some other European countries including Albania, Bulgaria, Belaru ...

In February 1932 to May 1932, Liebknecht worked at the Heinrich Hertz Institute within the Broadcast Receiver section. From June 1932 to December 1936 Liebknecht worked at the

as Assistant at the Institute for communication techniques. In May 1936, he became a

Doctor of Engineering The Doctor of Engineering, or Engineering Doctorate, (abbreviated DEng, EngD, or Dr-Ing) is a degree awarded on the basis of advanced study and a practical project in the engineering and applied science for solving problems in the industry. In the ...

War work

From January 1937 to 9 April 1945 Liebknecht worked at the

, Group WA Prüf 7 Section II in Wire Communication Techniques. His work on speech encipherment involved working on technical questions of speech (Ciphony) and on Wireless telegraphy and on telegraphy in general, Liebknecht conducted engineering design on teletype encoding of the SZ40 and SZ42 for the Germany Army. From 1 May 1942 to 9 April 1945 Liebknecht moved to Group WA Prüf 7 Section III in Wireless Communication Techniques. From 1 April 1942 to 1 July 1943 Liebknecht undertook the same field of work as in Liebknecht Section II. From 1 July 1943 to 9 April 1945, Liebknecht's field of work expanded to include hand encoding devices before he moved to WA Prüf 7/IV, (german: Nachrichtenaufklärung) Interception of Enemy Signals. His main field of work was on the technical work on speech scrambling.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Liebknecht, Werner Engineers from Thuringia 1905 births Year of death missing People from Gotha (town)