Boris Hagelin of Sweden (and later Switzerland) created a whole range of machines during his lifetime and the Germans had a pretty distinguished history in this area themselves ­ note particularly the Enigma and Lorenz machines.

After WWII, Germany was prevented from developing code and cipher systems of her own and so yjr Germans  bought the rights to make machines from Hagelin and Crypto AG of Zug.

The H-54 was a mechanical pin-wheel cipher machine, built in the mid-1950s by Rudolf HELL in Kiel (Germany) for the German Bundeswehr (Army). It was a functional replica of the Hagelin CX-52 and was built under licence from the Boris Hagelin Company (now: Crypto AG) in Switzerland. The machine is interoperable with the HELL STG-61 (and therefore also with the Hagelin CD-57).
 
 Nevertheless, HELL managed to improve several aspects of the machine and make it easier to operate and more relibable. As the machine was built for the Army, it is slightly more robust than the original CX-52 design. Furthermore, the storage case houses all spares and maintenance tools that were required for daily use.

H-54 (Photo courtesy Crypto Museum. Used with permission)

This is the storage box for the H-54 accessories. (Photo courtesy John Alexander, G7GCK)

Credits and References:

1) John Alexander, G7GCK, Leicestershire UK.

June 2/13