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European military intelligence partnership
Fünfergruppe, also known as 5-er Club (Club of five) and Ring of Five, 1
is the cryptonym of a secret European five-partner alliance in the field of
military intelligence. The group comprises the intelligence
services of Denmark,
Germany, The Netherlands (Army),
France and Belgium.
Note that this group is different from another five-partner alliance known
as MAXIMATOR.
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According to Richard Aldrich in [4], a group consisting of the same countries
existed since the early 1980s under the name The Ring of Five
(not to be confused with the Cambridge Spy Ring).
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The existence of the 5-er Club was first publicly disclosed (unwittingly) in a
handwritten note that was presented by journalists
Peter F. Müller, Ulrich Stoll and David Ridd in the German newspaper
Frankfurter Rundschau of 1 July 2020,
as confirmation of the existence
of another European five-country intelligence alliance — with Sweden instead of
Belgium — called MAXIMATOR [1]. 1
The note was written in 1986 by a member of the German delegation, presumable
someone of the MAD, BND or ZfCh.
Müller obtained the note as part of a trove of documents related to CIA-BND
Operation THESAURUS/RUBICON,
which the same journalists had disclosed in February 2020.
Written in a barely readable handwriting, the
note (below) had initially escaped
their attention.
Shortly after publication of the note in the Frankfurter Rundschau,
it was picked up by Dutch intelligence researcher Peter Koop, who published a
detailed analysis of the note
on his website [2]. Apparently, it contains a lot of codewords,
most of which are BND cryptonyms. MAXIMATOR
and its members are revealed in the second column marked Pol
(Political). To its left, under the heading Mil (Military), the
5-er Club members are listed: Wicke, Begon, Kresse H,
Pfingstrose. 2
➤ Read the full analysis (off-site)
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PLEASE HELP —
Most of the above note has meanwhile been 'deciphered', but there are
still some loose ends, such as the first item in the first column
(.. 50 Richtfunk VHF/ UHF) and the word 'Col' in the 2nd and 4th
columns. If you have any ideas, please let us know.
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Prior to Peter F. Müller et al., the existence of
MAXIMATOR had been revealed in April 2020
by Dutch Professor of computer security Bart Jacobs [3].
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As the note was written by a German member, Germany itself is not listed.
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#
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Country
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BND Cryptonym
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Organisation(s)
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1
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Germany
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?
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MAD,
BND,
ZfCh
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2
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Denmark
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Begonie
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FE (DDIS)
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3
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Netherlands
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Kresse-H 1
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MIVD
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4
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Belgium
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Pfingstrose
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ADIV
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5
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France
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Wicke
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DGSE
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The suffix 'H' is the abbreviation of the German word Heer
(Army).
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- Peter F. Müller, Ulrich Stoll and David Ridd, Exklusiv-Recherche: BND spionierte jahrzehntelang am Parlement vorbei
Frankfurter Rundschau, 1 July 2020
- Peter Koop, A unique note from the BND about European SIGINT alliances
Electrospaces website, 22-31 July 2020.
- Prof. Dr. Bart Jacobs,
Maximator: European signal intelligence cooperation, from a Dutch perspective
Intelligence and National Security, Taylor & Francis Online, 7 April 2020.
- Richard Aldrich GCHQ: The Uncensored Story of Britain's Most Secret Intelligence Agency
London, 2020.
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© Crypto Museum. Created: Friday 03 September 2021. Last changed: Tuesday, 16 April 2024 - 06:57 CET.
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![Handwritten note made in 1986 by a BND or ZfCH officer during a Maximator Conference. Click to enlarge. © 2020 Müller/Stoll/Ridd [1].](../maximator/img/maximator_note.png)