after the Uprising of 17 June 1953, when he was linked to a faction
led by Wilhelm Zaisser and Rudolf Herrnstadt and had to forfeit
his party functions and position in the Foreign Ministry. No disci-
plinary action was taken, however, because of the 1956 thaw, and
Ackermann was given other assignments until his retirement in 1961.
He ended his life by his own hand on 4 May 1973.ADFGVX CIPHER. A German code during World War I believed to
be unbreakable, the ADFGVX cipher was invented by Fritz Nebel,
an army communications officer, in order to provide a secure means
of encryption for mobile military units. It was introduced on 5 March
- Aware that the Germans were planning a major offensive in
the West prior to the arrival of American troops, the French Bu-
reau du Chiffre managed—largely through the efforts of Georges
Painvin—to present its first solution of the code in early April. Yet
despite claims to the contrary, this cryptanalytical success occurred
after the German attacks had subsided and thus too late to have sealed
the fate of the war.
ADOMATIS, HANS-JOACHIM. A West Berlin journalist with close
ties to the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS), Hans-Joachim
Adomatis worked as a freelancer after World War II and then in
1968 became editor of the Berliner Liberale Zeitung, a publication
of the Freie Demokratische Partei. His open advocacy of closer ties
between the two Germanys attracted the attention of the MfS, and
he was recruited in November 1972 under the code name Georg
Hansen. At its behest, Adomatis joined the German Journalists’
Union as well as the Volunteer Police Reserve of West Berlin. His
wide-ranging reporting continued until his final meetings with his
handler in January 1990. Since his file had not been destroyed during
the collapse of the German Democratic Republic, Adomatis was tried
in 1993 and given a one-year suspended sentence.
AFU. The standard transmitter-receiver used by the Abwehr, Afu
derives from Agenten-Funk (or agent radio). Developed during the
1930s and remarkably powerful for its size, this hand-keyed, battery-
powered Morse apparatus could fit into an attaché case along with
portable aerial and repair tools. It was tuned by quartz to a preset fre-
6 • ADFGVX CIPHER