In the early 20th century, an unknown person sent three encrypted postcards to a woman in Heidelberg, Germany. Can somebody break these cryptograms?

Encrypted postcards are a frequent topic on Klausis Krypto Kolumne. To date, I have published articles about several dozens of them. Among the most notable are a set of 35 cards written by a musician, a set of 44 cards written by another musician, and a set of 12 cards written by a later pram producer.

Encrypted postcards had their heyday in the early 20th century (roughly between 1900 and 1925), when the postage was cheap and the telephone technology was still in its infancy. Almost every encrypted postcard I’m aware of was sent by a young man to his loved woman.

Whenever an encrypted postcard introduced on this blog was not already solved, my readers found the solution pretty soon (with only one exception).

 

Three encrypted postcards from Heidelberg

On a classified ads web site, I recently found three encrypted postcards from Germany. They were sent from Bad Brückenau and Münstertal to a woman named Emma Krumbholz in Heidelberg. I don’t know, who wrote these cards and when they were written, but I’m pretty sure that the sender was the lover of Emma and that he wrote at some time in the early 20th century.

Here’s the first card (Bad Brückenau is a town in Franconia):

Postcard-Heidelberg-1-pic

Postcard-Heidelberg-1-tex

Here’s card number 2:

Postcard-Heidelberg-2-pic

Postcard-Heidelberg-2-tex

And here’s card number 3 (Münstertal is a valley in the Black Forest):

Postcard-Heidelberg-3-pic

Postcard-Heidelberg-3-tex

I don’t know the solution of these three cryptograms, but I’m optimistic that my readers will be able to break them. I’m looking forward to your comments.

Further reading: Ungelöst: Vier verschlüsselte Postkarten aus der Zeit der Jahrhundertwende

Kommentare (7)

  1. #1 Thomas
    17. August 2016

    Die erste Karte:

    Mein Zustand ist bedeutend gebes(s)ert. Eiweis ist fast ganz weg. Eiter findet der Arzt keinen mehr. Was(s)er ist ganz hel(l). Morgen Samstag Nachmit(t)ag.

  2. #2 Thomas
    17. August 2016

    Nur ein Teil der Buchstaben ist ersetzt:
    0 s
    1 a
    2 e
    3 i
    4 o
    5 u
    6 l
    7 m
    8 n
    9 r

  3. #3 Thomas
    17. August 2016

    Die zweite Karte:

    Meine Lieben!
    Heute sende euch die Ansichten von Brückenau. Diese ist die Mit(t)e, No. 2 die linke Seite, No. 3 die rechte Seite. Onsre Vil(l)a steht.

  4. #4 Thomas
    17. August 2016

    Und die dritte Karte:

    Ich denke dass morgen Abend zu Hause sein werde wenn es klap(p)t. Gieb dem Briefträger die Karte von Krej(?)ser zurück!

  5. #5 Klaus Schmeh
    17. August 2016

    Thomas: Vielen Dank! Das ging mal wieder sehr schnell!

  6. #6 Klaus Schmeh
    17. August 2016

    Tobias Schrödel via email:
    On MysteryTwister C3, there are two encrypted postcards written by a woman – a notable exception.

    Card 1

    Card 2

  7. #7 Klaus Schmeh
    17. August 2016

    The sender’s name is not mentioned in the cleartext. It therefore remains unclear, who wrote these cards.