TheCodeBreakers
early in 1919, apparently at the suggestion of Kurt Selchow, a 32-year-
old former captain in the Army intercept service. Selchow became its
administrative chief and staffed it with cryptologic acquaintances from
the war. His organization was at first known as Referat I Z, the z section
of Division I, Personnel and Budget, of the Foreign Office. It included
both the cryptanalytic service (the Chifinerwesen) and the cryptographic
(the Chiffrierburo), the latter twice as large as the former. Around 1936 a
reorganization of the Foreign Office renamed I Z as Pers z (pronounced
"pers-zed"), the z section of the Personnel and Administrative Division.
The z meant nothing—the division did not have 26 sections—and it may
have been chosen because it seemed appropriate to cryptology. Much
later, Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop took the Chiffrierburo
under his own office.
annaabi.ee 
