RAF–Stasi Records and an OTP Teaching Model
Documented organisational contacts do not identify a particular cipher. The letter-pad demonstration is separate from the archival record.
Illustrative letter-pad arithmetic; not a reconstruction of an authenticated RAF key or message.
Why This Matters
The Bundesarchiv documents Stasi contacts with the RAF and the sheltering of ten former members in East Germany between 1980 and 1983. Those records establish relationships and support; they do not, by themselves, establish the particular one-time-pad system previously attributed to this case.
Evidence limit: This exhibit has no identified intercepted-message series, recovered RAF pad or technical manual supporting claims of hundreds of unreadable transmissions or a particular KGB-supplied key kit. Those claims are therefore not presented as established history.
The widget maps A–Z to 0–25 and adds letters modulo 26. It is not a decimal field-pad reconstruction. A user-supplied key must cover the message; a blank key requests letters generated using the browser’s cryptographic random API and displays them with the result. A real one-time pad requires an independent, uniformly random secret key used only once. A displayed key is not secret, and this browser demonstration does not establish historical RAF use.
Stasi records became important evidence after German reunification. Archival proof of an organisational relationship and recovery of a cryptographic system are distinct findings; missing key material alone cannot prove that a specific one-time pad was used.
| Organization | Red Army Faction (RAF), West Germany |
| Era | 1970–1998 |
| Documented context | RAF–Stasi contacts |
| Cipher | Generic letter-pad teaching model |
| Status | No authenticated RAF cryptosystem identified here |
| Modern Lesson | Separate organisational evidence from cryptographic evidence |
Sources and Reading
Bundesarchiv, “Die RAF und die Stasi: Anarcho-terroristische Kräfte” (20 September 2017), documents contacts and the sheltering and monitoring of former RAF members. It does not identify the cipher used by this interactive.