Listening for the state: censoring communications in Scandinavia during World War I

Abstract

During the Great War, Denmark functioned as a neutral hub of telegraph communications across northern Europe. And from the first day of August 1914, the country’s Telegraph Directory issued a steady stream of censorship instructions, for instance against encrypted messages, unapproved languages and content that compromised the country’s neutrality. Yet, the authorities discovered a loophole in their censorship system: the telephone lines linking Denmark to Sweden and Norway were being used tactically to evade monitoring by state personnel at the Danish telegraph stations. This article delves into the government’s response to this unforeseen technological challenge to its wartime management of telecommunications security.

Keywords:

• Surveillance
• telecommunications
• telegraphy
• telephony
• World War I
• Denmark
• Scandinavia

Abbreviations:

• DNA: the Danish National Archive
• EMC: ENIGMA – Museum of Communication

Notes

1. Reiffenstein-Hansen, Skikkelser og Skæbner, 102.

2. Lidegaard, Overleveren, 79–87.

3. Telegrafdirektoratet, sekretariat: “Censurbog 1914–1917,” 1. DNA.

4. The minutes from the parliament proceedings were published in Dansk Telegraftidende, “Fra Rigsdagen: Telegramcensuren,” August 10, 1916, 150–7.

5. Ibid.

6. Udenrigsministeriet: “Gruppeordnede sager 1909–1945: 110X. 9A: Telegrafdirektøren. Kjøbenhavn den 25. Juli 1916. Højvelb. Kammerherre Zahle.” DNA.

7. Ibid.

8. Ibid., “fra RITZAUS BUREAU, 25/7 1916.”

9. Ibid.

10. An excellent introduction to the field is Lyon, Surveillance Studies.

11. See the introduction to this special issue. An example of vision-centered surveillance research is the inter-disciplinary network Negotiating (In)visibilities – A Network for Studies on the Seeable and the Hidden of Contemporary Culture, which is based at the University of Copenhagen: http://ni.ikk.ku.dk/about/. Accessed December 10, 2014.

12. Lauer, “Surveillance History,” 569.

13. Two brilliant exceptions in Scandinavian historiography is Pedersen, Brudte Segl, on postal espionage during the age of absolutism; and Langkjaer, Övervakning för rikets säkerhet, which is presented later in the article.

14. Foucault, Övervakning och straff, 220–1.

15. Ibid., 219–20. See also Behrent, “Foucault and Technology,” 80–7.

16. Joyce, The State of Freedom, 1.

17. Ibid., 7–8.

18. Volmar, “In Storms of Steel,” 227.

19. See also Morat, “Introduction,” 2.

20. Volmar, “In Storms of Steel,” 228.

21. Ibid., 229–32.

22. For an updated overview of World War I in Scandinavian historiography, see Sturfelt, “Skandinavien och första världskriget.” Media history is discussed on page 99.

23. Kilander, Censur och propaganda, 190–1.

24. Bastiansen, Herom har jeg nærmere telegraferet, 126–37.

25. Langkjaer, Övervakning för rikets säkerhet, 108–9.

26. A work that also should be mentioned is Bengt Beckman’s and C.G. McKay’s monograph on the development of signals intelligence in Sweden from 1900 to 1945. The book has an interesting chapter on World War I, which demonstrates how the officially neutral country actively collaborated with imperial German within the field of SIG-INT, for instance by providing German authorities with continuous intercepts of Russian telegrams. McKay and Beckman, Swedish Signal Intelligence, 35–63.

27. Headrick, The Invisible Weapon, 145–9.

28. Hills, What’s New, 199–201.

29. Winkler, Nexus, 266–80.

30. Altenhöner, “Total War – Total Control?” 59.

31. Ibid., 66–7.

32. Thestrup, Vogn og tog, 342–3.

33. See also Lehrman, “An Album of War,” 64–7.

34. Thestrup, Vogn og tog, 340–1.

35. Telegrafdirektoratet, sekretariat: “Censurbog 1914–1917,” 1. DNA.

36. Ibid., 1–2.

37. Ibid., 5.

38. Statstidende, August 3, 1914: “Kongeligt budskab.”

39. Hobson et al., “Introduction: Scandinavia in the First World War,” 11–24.

40. Lidegaard, Overleveren, 43–7.

41. Jørgensen, Den Smilende Kamæleon, 372–4.

42. Telegrafdirektoratet, sekretariat: “Censurbog 1914–1917,” 10–11. DNA.

43. Ibid., 23–5 and 39–41.

44. Ibid., 40.

45. The telegram was never transmitted to its intended addressee, as the Telegraph Directory was instructed by the Foreign Ministry to make it ‘quietly disappear.’ Udenrigsministeriet: “Gruppeordnede sager 1909–1945: 110X. 9A: Telegrafdirektøren, 5/12 1914, Hr Kammerherre Zahle.” DNA.

46. Telegrafdirektoratet, sekretariat: “Censurbog 1914–1917,” 30. DNA.

47. For Scandinavian telephone density in an international perspective, see for instance Solymar, Getting the Message, 111–3.

48. Thestrup, Vogn og tog, 318–20.

49. Heimbürger, Telefon, telegraf och radio, 92.

50. Udenrigsministeriet: “Gruppeordnede sager 1909–1945: 110 X. 9A: Telegrafdirektoratet, 23/ 8 1916.” DNA.

51. Ibid.

52. Steenbuch, “Danmarks telefonvæsen,” 83–4; Heimbürger, Telefon, telegraf och radio, 27–31.

53. For instance, Udenrigsministeriet: “Gruppeordnede sager 1909–1945: 110 X.9.B–F: Referat fra Pressebureauet, 1/9 1917.” DNA.

54. Udenrigsministeriet: “Gruppeordnede sager 1909–1945: 110 X. 9A: Telegrafdirektoratet, 23/ 8 1916.” DNA.

55. Telegrafdirektoratet, sekretariat: “Censurbog 1914–1917,” 32–3. DNA.

56. Udenrigsministeriet: “Gruppeordnede sager 1909–1945: 110 X. 9.B–F: Referat fra pressebureaet, 6/11 1916.” DNA.

57. The biography about Mr Yde remains to be written, but some general facts about his background and 1916 mission can be found in Kjølsen and Sjøkvist, Den danske udenrigstjeneste, 375–6.

58. Udenrigsministeriet: “Gruppeordnede sager 1909–1945: 110 X. 9A: Marinus L Yde TIL DET KGL. UDENRIGSMINISTERIUM, København, 23/7 1916.” DNA.

59. Ibid.

60. Udenrigsministeriet: “Gruppeordnede sager 1909–1945: 110 X. 9. B–F: Instruks for Pressetelegram-Censuren,” undated but probably October 1916. DNA.

61. Ibid.

62. Ibid., “Alle pressetelegrammer desuden,” undated.

63. At the time of his blacklisting, Mr Stauning was one of four so-called control ministers, one from each opposition party, who in September 1916 were given seats in the Social Liberal government. And judging by the censors’ logs and annotations, it was primarily Mr Stauning’s close associations with the German Social-Democrats that concerned the Foreign Ministry, not least his dealings with the equally blacklisted coal-importer Arbejdernes Fællesorganisations Brændselsforretning, which primarily traded with businesses in Germany. See for instance Udenrigsministeriet: “Gruppeordnede sager 1909–1945: 110 Vagtbog 1916–18.” DNA.

64. Udenrigsministeriet: “Gruppeordnede sager 1909–1945: 110 X. 9A: Forslag til en eventuel omordning af censuren,” undated but probably 30/9 1916. DNA.

65. The Telecommunications Act of 1897 made the state into the only legitimate owner of telecommunications infrastructure in Denmark, but a number of private companies such as the Copenhagen-based K.T.A.S were given ‘concessions’ to run local and regional telephone networks. See Thestrup, Vogn og tog, 256–9.

66. Udenrigsministeriet: “Gruppeordnede sager 1909–1945: 110 x. 9. PX.9P–X.9.VI,” undated draft from October 1916. DNA.

67. Kilander, Censur och propaganda, 97–8.

68. Udenrigsministeriet: “Gruppeordnede sager 1909–1945: 110X. 9B–F: Afskrift Censurkontrollen: Telegrafdirektoratet, 20/12 1916.” DNA.

69. Ibid.

70. See also Kilander, Censur och propaganda, 97.

71. Udenrigsministeriet: “Gruppeordnede sager 1909–1945: 110X. 9B–F: Afskrift Censurkontrollen: Telegrafdirektoratet, 20/12 1916.” DNA.

72. See also Lauer, “Surveillance History,” 576–7.

73. Statstelegrafvæsenet. Instruks III: Bestemmelser for Statstelefontjenesten. Marts 1910, 16. EMC 65.87.01.1/16.

74. Marklund, “A Stake in Public Confidence,” 5.

75. Udenrigsministeriet: “Gruppeordnede sager 1909–1945: 110W.26–W.31.a.I: intercepted telegram without date, probably from the end of January 1917.” DNA.

76. Telegrafvæsenets cirkulærer 1915–1927: “Tj. Telegram til Samtlige stationer, 24/5 1917.” PTM981A00217. PTM.

77. See the joint contribution to this special issue by Elizabeth Bruton and Paul Coleman: “Listening in the Dark: Audio surveillance, communication technologies, and the submarine threat during World War One.”

78. Hobson et al. “Introduction – Scandinavia in the First World War,” 11.

79. Udenrigsministeriet: “Gruppeordnede sager 1909–1945: 110 X.5–X.9.a: (B). Fortrolig. Avskrift, Kristiania 24. April 1917.” DNA.

80. Udenrigsministeriet: “Gruppeordnede sager 1909–1945: 110. X9.VI: Det Forenede Dampskibs-Selskab, Kjøbenhavn, den 27. Marts 1917.” DNA.

81. Udenrigsministeriet: “Gruppeordnede sager 1909–1945: 110. 9.VII–VIII: Udenrigsministeriets Pressebureau 25.–IV–17.” DNA.

82. Generaldirektoratet for Post og Telegrafvæsenet, Telegrafdirektoratets Sekretariat: “Sager henlagt efter journalnummer, 1917–1927. E2”: Correspondence between the Telegraph Director, the Foreign Ministry and a number of local telegraph stations in January 1917. DNA.

83. However, all the delegates agreed that the biggest loophole in this area was the right for private individuals in Norway to send encrypted telegrams abroad, in spite of the war – a fact that also the Norwegian delegation described as ‘scandalous.’ Udenrigsministeriet: “Gruppeordnede sager 1909–1945: 110. 9.VII–VIII: Udenrigsministeriets Pressebureau 25.–IV–17.” DNA.

84. Ibid.

85. Ibid.

86. Ibid.

87. Thestrup, Vogn og tog, 329.

88. Udenrigsministeriet: “Gruppeordnede sager 1909–1945: 110. 9.VII–VIII: Udenrigsministeriets Pressebureau 25.–IV–17.” DNA.

89. Udenrigsministeriet: “Gruppeordnede sager 1909–1945: 110.9.VII–VIII: Referat fra Pressebureauet til 1. Departement 25. april 1917.” DNA.

90. Ibid.

91. See also Kilander, Censur och propaganda, 172–9.

92. Udenrigsministeriet: “Gruppeordnede sager 1909 –1945: 110. X.5– X.9.A: Konference 5–8 december 1917.” DNA.

93. Udenrigsministeriet: “Gruppeordnede sager 1909–1945: X.9.VI: København, den 6. Juni 1917. Fortroligt. Kære Kancelliraad Højer!” DNA.

94. Ibid., “Kungl. Utrikesdepartementet. Pressavdelningen. Stockholm den 4 juni 1917.” DNA.

95. Ibid., for instance “Kungl. Utrikesdepartementet. Pressavdelning. Stockholm den 11 December 1918”; and “SSS, 12/12 18. Kancelliraad Højer Utrikesdepartementet Stockholm.” DNA.

96. Ibid., “Y/K 110 X 10. Marts 1919 Kære Højer.”

97. Ibid.

98. Ibid.

99. Udenrigsministeriet: “Gruppeordnede sager 1909–1945: 110. X.5–X.9.A: L/S, København den 21 november 1918.” DNA.

100. Udenrigsministeriet: “Gruppeordnede sager 1909–1945: 110 x. 9.B–F: Referat fra Pressebureauet, 10. januar 1919.”

101. Ibid., “Referat fra Pressebureauet, 20. februar 1919.”

102. Ibid.