Enigma machine found by divers to be restored by German museum

An Enigma machine with three rotors, like the one found. Photo: Computer Museum of America, CC-BY-SA 4.0

Earlier this December, divers found something very special in the Baltic Sea: a German Enigma encryption machine from World War II. The divers have handed over the machine to a regional museum for restoration and later on, exhibition.

The group of divers were actually on an assignment from the WWF to look for discarded fishing nets. They thought the machine was a typewriter at first, but quickly realised that it was something special. According to dr. Jann Witt of the German Naval Association, the machine might have been thrown off a German warship during the last days of the war.

The machine has been passed on to the Museum für Archäologie Schloss Gottorf, the state archeological museum of the Schleswig-Holstein region. There, it will spend a year in a bath of distilled water. This will wash off the chloride and stop decay from oxygen exposure. In the meantime, it will be taken out occasionally for further research. When the restoration is done, the machine will be displayed in the museum.

Sources: The Guardian (English), website Museum Schloss Gottorf (German).

To read more about the history of the Enigma machine, check out Wikipedia. To read more about archaeology, click here or click on one of the tags below:

Doneren