By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.
Germany’s former foreign intelligence chief and one of his longtime aides were arrested Tuesday in a widening espionage investigation involving allegations that highly classified intelligence was removed from the country’s Federal Intelligence Service and used in private consulting work involving foreign intelligence contacts.
Federal prosecutors said August Hanning, 80, who led Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service, or BND, from 1998 to 2005, is strongly suspected of treasonous espionage, obtaining state secrets, attempted treason and acting as an intelligence agent. His former chief of staff, identified under German privacy rules as Manfred D., was arrested on suspicion of assisting attempted treason and treasonous espionage.
Federal Criminal Police officers arrested Hanning in Bavaria’s Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen district and Manfred D. in the Steinfurt district of North Rhine-Westphalia. Authorities simultaneously searched locations connected to the suspects in Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia and Berlin.
The arrests follow an investigation into what prosecutors allege was a yearslong arrangement through which Manfred D. supplied Hanning with internal BND intelligence in exchange for payment.
According to prosecutors, the arrangement began in spring 2010, approximately five years after Hanning left the intelligence service.
Manfred D. later returned to a position that gave him extraordinary access to sensitive material. From March 2012 until March 2026, he served as chief of staff to several of Hanning’s successors as BND president.
Investigators now believe he provided Hanning with approximately 2,000 documents over the years, many classified and intended exclusively for internal intelligence use. A significant portion had been prepared for executive intelligence briefings involving senior officials from German ministries and national security agencies.
Prosecutors allege that Hanning used information obtained through that pipeline in his private security consulting business after leaving government.
In at least one instance, authorities say Hanning used classified intelligence provided by Manfred D. to prepare an analysis for an officer of a foreign intelligence service.
“It has yet to be determined if the material reached the intended recipient,” prosecutors said.
Investigators also allege that Hanning maintained close contact for several years with a representative of another foreign intelligence service and passed that person political information, some of which was based on documents supplied by Manfred D.
Federal authorities have not publicly identified the foreign governments or intelligence agencies involved.
The scale and sensitivity of the alleged breach have prompted concern that the case could damage the BND’s relationships with allied intelligence organizations. Reporting indicates that some of the material included information concerning Iran’s nuclear program, Russian military activities and intelligence supplied by foreign partner agencies.
German newspaper Bild reported that investigators believe Hanning obtained secret government material for use or resale through his consulting activities. The newspaper also reported that Hanning had encountered considerable financial difficulties following problems involving a Baltic bank on whose board he had served.
Bild reported that Hanning had longstanding professional contacts in Russia and China, including contacts with government officials.
Those connections should not be confused with the allegations in the current criminal investigation. Reuters and several German news organizations reported Tuesday that officials familiar with the case said the foreign intelligence service at the center of the present investigation was not Russian. Other German media have reported investigators examining an alleged connection to Azerbaijani intelligence.
Die Welt reported that the investigation also intersects with Hanning’s previous international intelligence contacts and reported allegations involving Israeli and Russian intelligence. Hanning had denied previous allegations concerning improper foreign intelligence relationships.
The Federal Prosecutor’s Office has not endorsed those broader media claims and has not named the foreign services involved in the criminal case.
Hanning spent decades near the center of German national security policy.
During the Cold War, he served in West Germany’s Permanent Representation to Communist East Germany and eventually became one of the country’s most senior intelligence officials.
Chancellor Helmut Kohl appointed him head of the BND in 1998. He remained in that position until 2005, overseeing Germany’s foreign intelligence operations during a period encompassing the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the war in Afghanistan and the opening years of the Iraq War.
After leaving the BND, Hanning became state secretary in Germany’s Federal Interior Ministry under Chancellor Angela Merkel, where he held responsibilities involving internal security and oversight of the country’s intelligence services from 2005 until 2009.
He later entered private consulting.
The investigation into Hanning reportedly developed unexpectedly out of an unrelated criminal inquiry.
German media reported that prosecutors searching premises associated with Hanning in September 2025 during an investigation connected to Hamburg businesswoman Christina Block discovered BND documents that raised questions about how classified intelligence had left the agency.
That discovery eventually led federal prosecutors to take over the intelligence investigation in May 2026.
The allegations are potentially particularly damaging because intelligence agencies depend heavily on exchanging information with foreign partners under assurances that classified material will remain protected.
If documents supplied to Germany by allied intelligence services were improperly obtained and passed outside authorized channels, foreign governments could reconsider what information they are willing to share with Berlin.
Current BND leadership has begun examining the potential scope of the breach.
The case is already being described in German media as potentially one of the country’s most serious intelligence scandals since the end of the Cold War.
Marc Henrichmann, chairman of the German parliament’s intelligence oversight committee, said authorities would pursue the allegations aggressively.
“Whoever allies themselves with the enemies of our liberal democracy will be found out,” Henrichmann said. “We will not tolerate the betrayal of secrets.”
The arrests do not establish that either man committed the alleged offenses.
Hanning and Manfred D. were expected to appear before an investigating judge at Germany’s Federal Court of Justice, who will determine whether the arrest warrants remain in force while prosecutors continue their investigation.
Authorities are also working to determine precisely what information left the BND, who ultimately received it and whether any of the roughly 2,000 documents allegedly supplied to Hanning caused damage to German national security or intelligence relationships abroad.
For Germany, those questions could prove more consequential than the arrests themselves.
If prosecutors establish that a former head of the country’s foreign intelligence service obtained classified information for years through an aide who remained inside the agency, the case would represent an extraordinary internal security failure at the institution responsible for protecting some of Germany’s most sensitive secrets.
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