Pokorny was born in
Kroměříž, Moravia in 1882, into a German-speaking family. His father was a postmaster. A cousin was Major
Franciszek Pokorny, a
Polish Army officer who after
World War I headed the
Polish General Staff's
Cipher Bureau. In 1900 Hermann Pokorny joined the
k.u.k. Austro-Hungarian Army. By 1918, when the
Austro-Hungarian Empire fell, he was a
lieutenant colonel. During
World War I, Pokorny, as a
cryptologist in the rank of
major, headed the Austro-Hungarian General Staff's Russian-Cipher Bureau. He showed great ability in
decrypting Russian en
ciphered military messages that were broadcast by
radio in 1914–17. He recognized that the Russian cryptographers had reduced the 35-letter
Russian alphabet to 24 letters, while doubling the 11 missing letters to some of the other 24 letters. His break into the Russian military cipher system enabled Austro-Hungarian and German forces to act in advance of impending Russian maneuvers, thus contributing substantially to
Central Powers victories over the Russians. He is mentioned in
Soviet Marshal Boris Shaposhnikov's famous book,
Мозг армии (The Brain of the Army, 1929). For his services to cryptology, Pokorny was decorated with the
Large Military Merit Medal with Swords in 1918. Founded on April 1, 1916, this honour was intended for the "highest especially praiseworthy recognition" and was awarded only 30 times. 28 of its recipients were officers of
general's rank; the other two were the naval aviator
Gottfried von Banfield (1916) and Pokorny himself. After World War I, as a
German-language native speaker, Pokorny did not request
Czechoslovak or
Austrian citizenship because he was not welcome in
Czechoslovakia on account of his German roots nor in
Austria because he had been born on Czech soil. Accordingly, in 1918 he joined the
Hungarian Army and made his new life as a
Hungarian citizen. He was promoted to
colonel in 1925 and retired in 1935 in the rank of
major general. During
World War II, he was not called up for military service. After the
Soviet Red Army captured
Budapest in 1945, he volunteered to support Hungary's reconstruction. He worked for the
Foreign Ministry (1945–1949). He went into his final retirement as a
general, and died in Budapest in 1960. == Ranks ==