BERLIN — German police on Tuesday arrested August Hanning, who led the country’s Federal Intelligence Service (BND) from 1998 to 2005, on suspicion of treasonous espionage, spying out state secrets and attempted treason, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office said, according to BBC News, DW and the Associated Press.
Prosecutors also arrested a former senior BND employee identified only as Manfred D., in line with German privacy rules, who served as Hanning’s chief of staff and later as chief of staff to his successors from 2012 until March 2026. Investigators say the two agreed in 2010 that Manfred D. would pass BND intelligence to Hanning in exchange for payment. “The current findings suggest that, over the years, Manfred D. provided Hanning with approximately 2,000 documents, many of which contained classified information to be used exclusively by the Federal Intelligence Service for internal purposes,” the prosecutors’ statement said.
Hanning, 80, who later served as state secretary at the Interior Ministry until 2009 before becoming a private consultant, allegedly used the material in his consulting work. Prosecutors say that on one occasion he used classified intelligence to draft an analysis for an officer of a foreign intelligence service, though it is not yet known whether it reached the recipient, and that he passed political information for several years to a representative of another foreign service. The statement did not name the countries involved. Searches were carried out at both men’s properties and in Berlin.
The case grew out of a separate investigation tied to Hamburg businesswoman Christina Block, heir to the Block House steakhouse chain, whose children were abducted from her ex-husband in a custody fight; investigators have alleged Hanning was involved in an earlier attempted abduction, which he denies. Evidence found during a search of his home in that case led to Tuesday’s arrests.
Marc Henrichmann, who chairs the Bundestag’s intelligence oversight committee, told AFP that Germany “will not tolerate the betrayal of secrets.” Green lawmaker Konstantin von Notz called the allegations “deeply troubling” and demanded a swift investigation. Manfred D. was due before an investigating judge Tuesday and Hanning on Wednesday.
Sources: BBC News, DW, Associated Press
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