High Bids for WWII Enigma Machine

eBay has long been a purveyor of the unusual and the unique, but it's not often an authentic piece of tech history captures as much attention as the Enigma 3 portable cipher machine that has racked up bids of almost 16,000 euros. The Enigma device was used extensively by Nazi Germany during World War II.

Specifically, the Enigma machine was capable of encrypting and decrypting secret messages using mechanical rotors. Its use entered the history books when Allied forces successfully broke the Enigma cipher with the help of early computer technology, and used the intercepted communications to help defeat the Germans.

Alexander Urff of Munich-based Sales Service is auctioning the device for a client, whose grandfather obtained it after the war. However, its history remains unknown as the serial numbers on the Enigma have been removed.

"Year of construction 1941 by Manufacturer Chiffriermaschinen Gesellschaft Heimsoeth and Rinke, Berlin. The Enigma machine is placed in an oak woodwork case. Three high-quality, all-metal, matched rotors and an Umkehrwalze B," the auction description reads.

Tech sites and bloggers quickly linked to the Enigma, which appears in almost perfect condition and is fully functional. Wire services even picked up on the sale.

In February of this year, two out of three Enigma messages discovered in 1942 and never broken were cracked through the M4 distributed computing project. The messages were encrypted using a four-rotor Enigma, which was considered unbreakable by the Germans due to the vast number of potential combinations.