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Schwedische Literatur-Wissenschaftlerin sucht Unterstützung beim Knacken einer Verschlüsselung

Von / 3. April 2015 / 5 Kommentare
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Die Doktorandin Ljubica Miočević von der Universität Stockholm würde gerne zwei Almanache des schwedischen Schriftstellers Clas Livijn (1781-1844) lesen. Doch diese enthalten viele verschlüsselte Passagen. Wer kann die Verschlüsselung knacken?

Wen spricht man an, wenn man auf einen verschlüsselten Text gestoßen ist, den man nicht dechiffrieren kann? Die Literatur-Wissenschaflterlin Ljubica Miočević von der Universität Stockholm befand sich in einer solchen Situation und kontaktierte das Center for Cryptologic History der NSA. Dort hat man allerdings nicht die Kapazitäten für solche Dechiffrier-Arbeiten. Dafür kennen die NSA-Historiker inzwischen Klausis Krypto Kolumne und leiten derartige Fragen daher oft an mich weiter. Auf diese Weise erhielt ich auch die Anfrage von Ljubica Miočević, die ich hiermit gerne an meine Leser weitergebe.

Ljubica Miočević ist PhD-Kandidatin (also Doktorandin) und beschäftigt sich mit der schwedischen Literatur des 19. Jahrhunderts. Insbesondere interessiert sie sich für den romantischen Schriftsteller Clas Livijn (1781-1844). Livijn verfasste 1800 einen Almanach in verschlüsselter Form. Zwei Jahre später verschlüsselte er einige Seiten eines weiteren Almanachs. Schafft es jemand, die Verschlüsselung zu knacken? Ljubica Miočević würde sich zweifellos sehr über eine Dechiffrierung freuen.

Die Chancen für einen Codeknacker stehen meiner Meinung nach gut, denn vermutlich handelt es sich um eine einfache Buchstaben-Ersetzung. Livijn dürfte kaum den Nerv gehabt haben, um für diese große Textmenge ein kompliziertes Verfahren zu verwenden. Außerdem war die Verschlüsselungstechnik im Jahr 1800 noch nicht ganz so weit entwickelt.

Hier sind drei Seiten aus Livijns Almanach von 1800:

Livijn-Almanach-1800 (01)

Livijn-Almanach-1800 (31)

Livijn-Almanach-1800 (45)

Der Almanach von 1803 enthält nur drei Seiten mit verschlüsselten Notizen:

Livijn-Almanach-1803-01

Livijn-Almanach-1803-02

Livijn-Almanach-1803-03

Über Anregungen zur Dechiffrierung der Livijn-Kryptogramme würde ich mich sehr freuen. Vielleicht schafft es ja sogar jemand, den Code zu knacken.

Zum Weiterlesen: Kryptogramm aus dem Jahr 1900: Die verschlüsselten Memoiren des Simeone Levi

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Kommentare (5)

  1. #1 Kent
    4. April 2015

    I think we can help Ms. Miočević with this problem. As I know all too well from other research projects with 200 year old diaries it is not an easy task, with handwriting, abbreviations, and old language customs presenting challenges on top of the cryptanalysis.

    Mr Levijn is at the base level, however using essentially a monoalphabetic substitution cipher which does not appear overly difficult to sort out, the issues above notwithstanding.

    In the first few days of January on your first picture, Mr. Levijn banters alot about his friends, like Professor Hellman (who had been elected Inspector at one of the “Nations” . This is a sort of protektor-father figure, now also mother, for one of the many ancient regional student associations that exist at Uppsala and Lund, in this case, universities in Sweden), for example. Rydelius and Kinberg are mentioned(who apparently were abit crazy or abusive “ovettiga” that night).

    He says he spent the evening of Jan 2 at his friend Baner’s place (final entry for Jan 2 “var hos Baner om afton”, for example).

    Livijns friends Atterbom and Rydström are mentioned for Jan 3, etc. It appears these gentlemen got together at Livijns place for a game of Boston (a card game from the American Revolution days) final words likely “….Atterbom var hos mig spe. ????boston”.

    These are all characters known, and probably Ljubica Miočević is already familiar with them from her prior work.

    What kind of help would she prefer? I think perhaps a basic alphabet can be put together to allow her to do the translation. Lots of handwriting etc issues to be sorted out of course.

  2. #2 Kent
    4. April 2015

    A quick addendum for Jan 3: “Atterbom var hos mig spelade Boston”. So Atterbom was at Livijns place and they played the card game Boston (it was not the last words for that day though). Anyway, yes, system essentially solved I would say, we should be able to sort this out for her.

  3. #3 Ljubica
    4. April 2015

    Thank you very much for your quick and efficient help! All the names you mentioned are well known to me, and the type of phrases is the same as in Livijn’s later almanac entries, written in plain.

    You have made me a very happy person today! I supposed a 20 year old student, such as Livijn was at the time of writing this almanac, would be using a rather simple cipher, but it was not simple enough for me.

    Thank you very much! I can hardly wait for reading the entire almanac.

    If you could put together a basic alphabet for me, that would be great. You can send it to: lmi at littvet.su.se

    P.S. Charming with “boston”! Livijn eventually advanced to pharao. In a later almanac he keeps record of his winnings and losing, while playing with his army buddies, on their way to the Napoleonic wars in 1813.

  4. #4 Kent
    4. April 2015

    @Ljubica. Great! It will certainly help that you are already familiar with his style of keeping diary. He uses abbreviations, leaves words out and sometimes uses a little trickery like writing “spelade Boston – spe ladeboston” or “var jag i kyrkan – var jagikyrkan” which is enough to fool pattern word analysis for anyone, but I will send a picture with an initial alphabet this weekend and then I will be happy to help additionally if you wish.

  5. #5 Ljubica
    4. April 2015

    @Kent. Perfect! I’m looking forward to reading the almanac. It covers a period in Livijn’s life that I otherwise know very little about.

    Happy Easter & all the best from Stockholm!