Adolf Paschke

Adolf Paschke (born 20 September 1891 in Saint Petersburg, Russia) was an expert linguistic cryptanalyst at Pers Z S, which was the Signal Intelligence Agency of the German Foreign Office (Auswärtiges Amt) before and during World War II. Dr Adolf Paschke was a Nazi and joined in 1933.

Life
Adolf Paschke was born of German parents and as a child grew up in Saint Petersburg, Russia and attended the Gymnasium of Sankt Petri Schule. After graduation in 1909, he studied law and national economics in Berlin and Saint Petersburg. He graduated his course in 1914 at the University of St Petersburg.

In 1920, he was married to Adele, the youngest daughter of the Evangelical University theologian Professor Dr. Carl Heinrich Cornill. At the time of the TICOM interrogation in 1946, he had two children, a 20-year old daughter, who was studying medicine at the University of Marburg, and a 12 year son, who is attending the Gymnasium.

During World War I, he was classed as a Civilian internee and sent to an Internment camp for 10 months. He was finally exchanged, where in the autumn of 1915, he returned to Germany. He was immediately conscripted and posted to the Signal Corps (Nachrichtentruppe) and was employed in the cryptanalysis service. Cryptanalysis at that time was an entirely new field in Germany. He had the opportunity to study in detail the results achieve in the first years of the war. He was trained according to the cryptographic standards of that time, and worked in the cryptanalytic service on the eastern front until 1918. He was known to achieved numerous first solutions. During his time on the eastern front he was trained on mobile Radio transmission techniques and became a reserve Lieutenant in the Signal Corps. In the autumn of 1918, he was transferred to the department of the Chief of Signal Communications in the Reichswehr headquarters, where he gained new experience in the latest techniques.

After the end of World War I, he was summoned in 1919 to the German Foreign Office as an expert on cryptography. He worked in a leading position at the Foreign Office in the Pers Z S unit until 1945. During his time there, he undertook research on cryptologic working methods, and made a number of advances in the field. Through his work, he knew the diplomatic cryptographic systems of all the nations of the world as of 1945. His language specialties were French, Greek and a complete master, both written and spoken of Russian and some knowledge of Italian. His cryptographic specialties were the codes and cyphers of the Soviet Union, Austria, France, Vatican, Italy, Greece and former state of Czechoslovakia.

He became a Specialist (regierungsrat) in 1927, in 1939 a Senior Specialist (Oberregierungsrat). In 1941, he was recommended to the rank of Principal Foreign Office Specialist (Vortragender Legationsrat). He was made responsible for report publishing and the translators unit in the intervening period. In 1943, he becoming responsible for the Linguistic Cryptanalysis Subsection

After the War
On May 1945, he was moved from Germany to London by TICOM, along with 23 colleagues for interrogation by the CSDIC unit. In June 1945 he was released and was returned to Marburg where he was at the disposal of the Military Government until January 1946.

During Denazification proceedings, he was placed during the first hearing in Category V, Persons Exonerated (Entlastete). After the second hearing he was placed in Category IV,  Followers (Mitläufer) which he considered the correct category and was released.