This is part 1 of a 3-part challenge regarding the classical transposition. You can solve this challenge with pen and paper as well as with adequate software programs (e.g. CrypTool 2). With this irregular columnar tranposition a key length greater than 10 was used.
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Hi, is the solution in english or in german?

Hi. The solution is in german.

Cheers,
Arno

So we have a text of 445 letters.
Hint:
"With this irregular columnar tranposition a key length greater than 10 was used."

Means that there are columns with 11 or more letters each ?
That could be .. for example .. 11 or 55 ? :E
445/11 ~ 40 rows
445/55 ~ 8 rows

How is that solveable ?
Maybe i got something wrong ?

Btw I just recognized a typing mistake - my quoted text sais "tranposition"
instead of "tranSposition"

i am wondering how one is supposed to find the used "key word" once the text is decrypted… when you have the key in form of 11 or more numbers, you have to find a word whose letters are in that alphabetical order, right? that is a challenge by itself [HTML_REMOVED]

Why do you wish to know the keyword? There will in general be many words that fit the pattern in which the columns are permuted.

It has been a while since I solved this but how do you know that there is a valid keyword?

the german challenge pdf tells me to submit the "key word" in uppercase… that doesn't sound like it would suffice to submit the number sequence.

No, not the keyword of the transposition…a keyword that is referred to in the plaintext.

I don't know German but in the slide before it tells you the german word to look for in order to find the keyword.

Is it just coincidence that I find "an annoying change" in the first four lines of the first column?

Is it just coincidence that I find "an annoying change" in the first four lines of the first column?

What do you mean? Is this part of the plaintext you revealed?

Is it just coincidence that I find "an annoying change" in the first four lines of the first column?

What do you mean? Is this part of the plaintext you revealed?

WHELE
IESIE
CNRGN
NEV
EIN NERVIGE WECHSELN