The codes and ciphers of the RAF terrorists (3)
RAF terrorist Andreas Baader described two encryption methods and left an encrypted message whose solution is unknown to me. Can a reader crack it?
Actually, my mini-series about the RAF’s encryption methods was supposed to have only two parts. But blog reader Rallinger threw a spanner in the works by pointing me to a very interesting source: a text by RAF terrorist Andreas Baader that deals with encryption, among other things.
Quelle/Source: Fahndungsplakat
A ciphertext describes encryption methods
The text in question is a 30-page message that Baader wrote in January 1974 while in prison in Schwalmstadt-Ziegenhain. It is accessible on the Social History Portal. In this letter, numerous hints are given for life in the underground. It was apparently intended for Baader’s RAF comrades who were still at liberty. Whether it reached them is not known to me.
On page 9, Baader stresses the importance of encoding (“vercoden”) in the underground and that everyone in the RAF should use two procedures (one for everyone and one for personal use):
Quelle/Source: Social History Portal
Cipher 1
Baader describes the cipher for all as follows:
Quelle/Source: Social History Portal
Unfortunately, it is not clear to me what is meant here. I assume that it is about a homophonic cipher, where each letter is indicated by line and position in the mentioned word sequence. 32 (third line, second letter) would therefore be an A. Since most letters can be encoded differently (12 also stands for A, among others), a frequency analysis will not be of much use to the codebreaker.
Should the procedure be meant in such a way, I consider it quite interesting. It is more or less a book cipher, where the user knows the “book text” (eight words in alphabetical order) by heart. Shorter messages can be encrypted quite securely with this. A challenge to this method would be helpful to assess this more accurately.
But maybe I interpreted the description wrong. Does a reader know more?
Cipher 2
Baader describes the second procedure like this:
Quelle/Source: Social History Portal
Presumably, the same method is involved here, but with a different key. In this case, the user has to remember 26 words that are sorted alphabetically. Shorter texts encrypted with this method are again unlikely to be cracked.
A ciphertext
What is particularly exciting about this source is that the Baader-Kassiber also contains a coded text:
Quelle/Source: Social History Portal
Unfortunately, I do not know whether the RAF terrorist here used one of the two methods mentioned above. I don’t know the key anyway.
Can any reader solve this cryptogram? Thanks in any case to Rallinger for the great tip.
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Further reading: Codeknacker auf Verbrecherjagd – Schnelldurchlauf
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