Werner Liebknecht (born 1 June 1905 inWaltershausen) was a German engineer who held the rank ofBeamter at Referat Wa Prüf 7 of theWaffenamt duringWorld War II. 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, theSZ 40 and theSiemens and Halske T52 secure teleprinter.[1][2]
From 1911 to 1925, Liebknecht attendedVolksschule andOberrealschule inSonneberg. Between 1925 and 1927, he studiedElectrical engineering at theTechnische Hochschule München (nowTU Munich) and between 1927 and 1931 he studiedCommunications engineering at theTechnische Hochschule Charlottenburg (nowTU Berlin), and graduated with aDipl.-Ing.[2]
In February 1932 to May 1932, Liebknecht worked at theHeinrich Hertz Institute within the Broadcast Receiver section. From June 1932 to December 1936 Liebknecht worked at theTechnische Hochschule Charlottenburg as Assistant at the Institute for communication techniques. In May 1936, he became aDoctor of Engineering.[2]
From January 1937 to 9 April 1945 Liebknecht worked at theWaffenamt, Group WA Prüf 7 Section II in Wire Communication Techniques. His work on speech encipherment involved working on technical questions of speech (Ciphony) and onWireless telegraphy and on telegraphy in general, Liebknecht conducted engineering design on teletype encoding of theSZ40 and SZ42 for theGermany Army.[2] 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.[2]
His main field of work was on the technical work onspeech scrambling.
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