Former BND Director August Hanning Arrested in Germany for Alleged Espionage
Germany's former foreign intelligence chief August Hanning, 80, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of passing state secrets to foreign intelligence services. A former aide was also detained.
Former BND Chief Arrested on Espionage and Treason Charges
Germany's former head of foreign intelligence, August Hanning, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of passing classified state secrets to foreign intelligence services, the federal prosecutor's office announced. According to Courthouse News Service, a former aide identified as Manfred D. was also taken into custody the same day.
Hanning, 80, who led the Federal Intelligence Service — known by its German acronym BND — from 1998 to 2005, is "strongly suspected of treasonous espionage, spying out state secrets, attempted treason, and espionage," the federal prosecutor's office said in a statement. He was arrested in Bad Toelz-Wolfratshausen in southern Germany. Manfred D. was detained separately in Steinfurt, in western Germany, and faces charges of aiding and abetting attempted treason and treasonous espionage.
Ines Peterson, a spokesperson for the federal prosecutor's office, told German broadcaster RTL on Tuesday that investigators believe Hanning used classified information in at least two instances. "In one instance, there is suspicion that Mr Hanning used classified information to prepare an analysis for an employee of a foreign intelligence service," Peterson said. "In another instance, he is alleged to have passed on information following an extensive exchange — also with an employee of another intelligence service."
Neither Peterson nor the prosecutor's office identified which foreign intelligence services the two men allegedly supplied with classified material.
An Alleged Scheme Spanning Over a Decade
According to prosecutors, both suspects are believed to have reached an agreement in 2010 under which Manfred D. would continuously transfer valuable BND intelligence to Hanning in exchange for payment. Manfred D. served as Hanning's chief of staff and subsequently held the same role for several successive BND presidents from 2012 until 2026, giving him broad access to sensitive internal material.
"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, particularly for executive intelligence briefings," the prosecutor's office stated. The flow of classified documents continued until June 2022, Peterson confirmed. Hanning is alleged to have drawn on the material for private consulting work.
Premises belonging to both men were searched on Tuesday.
Custody Abduction Case Led to Espionage Discovery
The espionage charges emerged from a separate and unrelated investigation. Hanning had already come under scrutiny in connection with the abduction of Hamburg businesswoman Christina Block's children from her ex-husband in Denmark in January 2024, amid a custody dispute that had lasted several years. Evidence uncovered during a search of Hanning's home in relation to that case ultimately prompted the espionage proceedings now underway.
Prosecutors announced in the autumn of 2025, according to German news agency dpa, that Hanning and a retired official from the Hamburg State Criminal Police Office are suspected of accepting a contract from Block in 2022 to carry out the abduction of her children whilst both men were serving as executives of a private security firm. The Block family is widely recognised in Germany as the founding family behind the Block House steakhouse chain, and the custody case has drawn sustained coverage from the German tabloid press.
Calls for Swift Investigation
German opposition lawmaker Konstantin von Notz, a member of the Greens party and chair of the parliamentary committee overseeing Germany's intelligence services, said he was shocked by the allegations. "This is a hard-hitting and deeply troubling story," von Notz told Spiegel Online.
"We expect a swift and thorough investigation into the egregious allegations levelled against former BND chief Hanning," he added. Von Notz also renewed longstanding calls for restrictions on former senior officials with high-level security clearances engaging in private consulting after leaving government service, noting that his party had raised concerns about such lobbying activities for years.
The BND did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Source: Courthouse News Service