Germany Arrests Spy Boss, Chief of Staff For Treason, Espionage

The reputation of the German government has been shaken by abject scandal after it arrested its own former national intelligence chief under “strong suspicion of espionage constituting treason”.

The former President of the Federal Intelligence Service [Bundesnachrichtendienst, BND] Dr. August Hanning was arrested in a dawn raid on his home on Tuesday morning and taken away in a black van over allegations that he had stolen thousands of intelligence documents to sell to foreign powers.

80-year-old Hanning held a series of senior positions in the German government over a long and distinguished career, but as reported by best-selling newspaper Bild he has lately experienced “considerable financial difficulties” after a bank he was on the board of collapsed. During the Cold War Hanning was West Germany’s de facto ambassador to Communist East Germany, and from 1998 to 2005 was the President of the BND.

From 2005 to 2009, he held a supervisory role overlooking German intelligence agencies as the State Secretary of the Federal Interior Ministry of the Federal Republic of Germany under Chancellor Angela Merkel.

According to Die Welt, it is alleged by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office that from 2010 Hanning paid his former chief of staff, ‘Manfred D.’, who remained in the intelligence service and served under subsequent BND Presidents, to pass him documents that Hanning would then sell on to foreign clients under the guise of being an independent security consultant. It is claimed that Hanning bought almost 2,000 secret German intelligence files and their intended destinations included foreign intelligence agencies.

Which countries were buying these reports was not made clear in the government press release, but Bild reports Hanning is said to have had links with Russia and China including an alleged “direct line” to the Kremlin. The Welt report states the case has links to Israeli intelligence, and that a government source had previously identified him as an informant for Russian intelligence.

The paper noted it had previously put that specific allegations to Hanning and that he had denied it.

August Hanning was arrested on suspicion of “treasonous espionage, uncovering state secrets, attempted treason, and intelligence activity”, and Manfred D., who remained an employee of the BND until Spring 2026, was arrested on suspicion of “aiding and abetting attempted treason and treasonous espionage”. Both are due to appear before a judge this week. Police raided addresses in Bavaria, North-Rhine Westfalia, and Berlin, including Hanning’s home near Münster.