A hopeless struggle: Austro-Hungarian cryptology during World War I

Cryptologia, Oct 2000 by Schindler, John R

A HOPELESS STRUGGLE: AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN CRYPTOLOGY DURING WORLD WAR I*

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ABSTRACT: Austria-Hungary's cryptologic effort was the most successful of WWI, though also the least known. Habsburg cryptology played a major role in staving off defeat, keeping Austria-Hungary in the war to the end, and its leader, Max Ronge, was a noteworthy intelligence pioneer. Study of Austro-Hungarian intelligence during WWI reveals much about the nature of cryptology and how it can be effectively used in war.

KEYWORDS: Cryptology, Austria-Hungary, Max Ronge.

The First World War was the first signals intelligence war. Essential features of signals intelligence familiar to us today originated in the epic struggles of 1914-1918. The study of the role played by intelligence in World War I provides a cautionary tale of the strengths and limitations of signals intelligence. At the outset, a troubling question presents itself: Why are the contributions of the most successful cryptologic effort of World War I, that of the Habsburg Empire, the least known of all the major belligerents?

Upon examination, the causes of this historical amnesia become apparent. In the first place, historians, especially British and American, have generally given scant attention to Austria-Hungary: the battlefields are too obscure, the names too difficult to pronounce, the issues too complex - and the Habsburgs lost the war anyway. Second, researchers have been hindered by the fact that the wartime records of the Habsburg cryptologic service are spotty, in contrast to the wealth of information about most other aspects of Austria-Hungary's war effort, available at Vienna's esteemed War Archive. When the empire collapsed in October 1918, intelligence officers destroyed many records to protect themselves and their subordinates. Hence the full truth can never be known. And, given the general impression of Habsburg inefficiency and defeat - had not Napoleon once tellingly described Austria as being always behind by one army, one year, and one idea? - it countered historians' expectations that Austria-Hungary would produce a second-to-none cryptology. After all, how could the ancient, semifeudal empire of the Habsburgs, more famed for waltzes and archdukes than for military and technological innovation, excel in something so modern as signals intelligence and codebreaking?

Yet throughout the Habsburg Empire's last war, its cryptologic effort indeed was outstanding. Besides France, Austria-Hungary was the only European power to possess a standing military codebreaking service in 1914. It had been founded in November 1911 by Andreas Figl, who became a noted cryptologist.1 And that service, the Dechiffierdienst, was remarkably effective in supporting Austro-Hungarian operations on the battlefield, both strategically and tactically. Its achievements on the Eastern, Balkan and Italian fronts deserve an honorable place in the annals of cryptologic history. Austria-Hungary's codebreakers could not prevent the empire's collapse, and could not transform a second-rate power into a first-rate one, but they doubtless prolonged its life through four years of total war. The reasons underlying the effectiveness of Austro-Hungarian cryptology are numerous and varied.

In the first place, that an army cryptologic service existed in 1914 helped considerably. Although much of the high command was dubious about modern technology (Emperor Franz Joseph, the supreme war lord, famously disliked airplanes, felt that the internal combustion engine ruined field maneuvers, and refused to use telephones and elevators), senior officers on the whole were open to new ideas in the ancient art of codebreaking at least. The Dechiffrierdienst by 1914 was an established branch of the respected Army Intelligence Service, the Evidenzbureau; indeed, Vienna's codebreakers had been noted for their prowess since the 18 1h century and Empress Maria Theresia's "Black Chamber." Like the Evidenzbureau on the whole, including its espionage department (Spionageabteilung), the cryptologic branch was organized functionally into geographic teams focused on Russian, Balkan and Italian targets. Habsburg cryptologists thus did not need to fight for a place at the intelligence table, nor did they need to prove their worth; their role in military and intelligence planning was secure before the war began. It was not necessary to create a bureaucracy from scratch. In addition, Austro-Hungarian generals were more often willing to acknowledge the merits of cryptology than the generals of other belligerents.

The World War I Austro-Hungarian cryptologic effort exemplifies the "great man" theory of history. Much of the success enjoyed by the Dechifferdienst can be attributed to the talents of Maximilian Ronge. He was the guiding light of the army intelligence service throughout the war and from 1917 was its last chief.2 Ronge, a career intelligence officer who held every rank in intelligence from lieutenant to major general, possessed broad experience in diverse intelligence disciplines, from humint to counterintelligence (among other highlights, it was he who uncovered the treachery of the infamous Colonel Alfred Redl only a year before the war, the then-Captain Ronge having replaced Redl as head of the Spionageabteilung).3 Despite his background in more conventional espionage, Ronge proved very open to the benefits of radio intelligence, intuitively understanding its battlefield potential. He was also an excellent chooser of subordinates, as well as a skilled bureaucratic infighter. Ronge knew how to combine the different strands of intelligence into a unified, complementary and coherent whole, truly one team and one mission. He ranks as perhaps the master of intelligence, and especially cryptology, during World War I, yet he too has been all but lost to historians of the subject. Not for want of effort, however: Ronge's almost-tell-all accounts of the war are a Yardleyesque tour de force, as well as the only substantial memoir of Austro-Hungarian cryptology at wax.4