Bavaria: New insights into the history of the "Hitlermühle"

The history of the "Hitlermühle" was a secret for a long time.

Bavaria: New insights into the history of the "Hitlermühle"

The history of the "Hitlermühle" was a secret for a long time. The Deutsches Museum is now presenting previously unpublished material on the Nazi cipher device. A new film project reports on the creation of the machine and its inventor.

Munich (dpa / lby) - Many people know the history of the Nazi key machine "Enigma". Its successor, on the other hand, is far less well known: the "Key Device 41", also known as the "Hitlermühle". The device was developed because the Wehrmacht suspected that the "Enigma" had already been cracked. Today the German Museum in Munich is presenting a new film project on the history of the origins of the "Hitlermühle" and its inventor Fritz Menzer.

Menzer's descendants are also expected. They were interviewed for the series of film sequences and also want to hand over documents and pictures to the museum. Also present are the museum's cryptology curator, Carola Dahlke, and the documentary filmmaker Robert Jahn.

The Deutsches Museum has two models of the "Hitlermühle" in its collection. Hobby treasure hunters discovered one of them in a forest southeast of Munich in 2017 and handed it over to the museum. A memorial dispute about the spectacular find ended up before the administrative court in Munich and caused a stir.