August Hanning, former German spy chief, arrested on treason and espionage charges

What happened?

German police have arrested August Hanning, the former head of the country’s foreign intelligence agency, on suspicion of treason and espionage.

Hanning, who ran the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) from 1998 to 2005, was taken into custody at his home in Nordwalde, near the western city of M%fcnster, on Tuesday morning. Simultaneously, police in Bavaria arrested his former chief of staff, identified only as Manfred D in line with German privacy laws.

The federal prosecutor’s office said the arrests follow a long-running investigation into the systematic theft of state secrets. Officers also searched properties in Berlin as part of the operation.

How did the scheme work?

According to prosecutors, the two men established an arrangement in 2010, shortly after both had left their primary roles working together at the BND and the federal interior ministry.

Manfred D later returned to the BND, serving as chief of staff to successive intelligence chiefs between 2012 and early 2026. Investigators say he used this high-level access to gather highly confidential documents, which he then smuggled out and passed to Hanning.

The prosecutor's office said Manfred D provided Hanning with approximately 2,000 classified documents over a ten-year period ending in 2022, receiving regular payments in exchange.

Hanning, who has worked as a private consultant since leaving public office, is accused of using the stolen intelligence to write a security analysis for an officer of a foreign intelligence service. Prosecutors are also investigating his close, multi-year contact with a representative of a second foreign intelligence agency, to whom he allegedly passed sensitive political details.

German authorities have not yet identified which foreign governments or intelligence services were on the receiving end of the information.

How was the plot uncovered?

The espionage investigation unexpectedly came to light during an entirely separate criminal inquiry involving Christine Block, a German steakhouse heiress.

Block is currently accused by Hamburg prosecutors of organising the 2023 kidnapping of her two youngest children amid a bitter custody dispute. Hanning was drawn into that case after investigators alleged he had played a role in an earlier, failed kidnap attempt—a claim he has denied.

While searching electronic devices seized during the Block investigation, state police reportedly stumbled upon a trove of sensitive, recently dated BND files, which ultimately pointed them to Hanning and Manfred D.

What is the reaction?

The arrests have sent shockwaves through Germany's security establishment. Marc Henrichmann, the chairman of the German parliament’s intelligence oversight committee, warned that the state would take a hard line on the breach.

"Whoever allies themselves with the enemies of our liberal democracy will be found out," Henrichmann said.

The BND has struggled with a series of major security failures in recent years. In 2023, a senior intelligence officer, Carsten L, was charged with treason after being accused of passing highly classified information about the war in Ukraine to Russian intelligence in exchange for hundreds of thousands of euros. His trial is still ongoing in Berlin.

Hanning and Manfred D are scheduled to appear before an investigating judge on Tuesday and Wednesday, where they will be formally charged.