The man who headed Germany’s intelligence agency from 1998 to 2005 has been arrested on suspicion of espionage and attempted treason, according to the country’s federal prosecutor’s office. The office announced Tuesday that August Hanning, 80, was arrested and faces charges including “treasonous espionage, obtaining state secrets, attempted treason” through contact with foreign intelligence services. countries Hanning is accused of working for. However, citing anonymous sources, German media outlet Der Spiegel reported that Hanning was in contact with a representative of Azerbaijan’s intelligence agency. In 2025, prosecutors also accused Hanning of ties to Israeli spies in a separate case that ultimately led to the former intelligence chief’s alleged spying for other agencies. If convicted, treason carries a maximum sentence of life in prison in Germany. German media outlet Deutsche Welle described Hanning’s arrest as the “biggest espionage scandal of the century” in Germany. Here’s what we know: Who is August Hanning? Born in Nordwalde, Westphalia, western Germany, in 1946, Hanning served as head of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) from 1998 to 2005 and then went on to work in the Federal Ministry of the Interior, before working as state secretary until 2009. He later worked as a private consultant. German media showed photographs of Hanning being carried from his red brick home in Norwalde, near Munster, to a bulletproof vehicle by masked officers on Tuesday. tomorrow. What do prosecutors allege? They claim Hanning used classified intelligence to “prepare analysis” for a foreign intelligence service and maintained “close contact” with another foreign spy service for “several years” while working as a private consultant. They say that in 2010, Hanning made a deal to receive confidential information from his former bureau chief, who was in office until March of this year and is called only “Manfred D,” and was preparing to provide an “analysis” of it to a foreign power. in exchange for money. It is not clear whether the analysis was properly shared. However, Hanning is also alleged to have passed potentially sensitive political information, in part based on information provided by Manfred D, to a contact representing a separate foreign intelligence service. Manfred D was also arrested on Tuesday and charged with complicity in attempted treason and treasonous espionage. “It is believed that both suspects agreed, in the spring of 2010, for Manfred D to continuously transmit valuable information from the Federal Intelligence Service to Hanning in exchange for remuneration,” a statement from the prosecutor’s office says. 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, in particular for executive intelligence reporting,” he added. “Hanning was to capitalize on such information in the context of his private consulting services, which he had been offering since then,” prosecutors said. Hanning and Manfred D’s spying was discovered during an investigation into a separate kidnapping case involving German businesswoman and steakhouse chain heiress Christina Block. In that case, Hamburg prosecutors accused Block of organizing the kidnapping of his two minor children in 2023 over a custody dispute. Prosecutors said Hanning put Block in contact with a private Israeli spy company to carry out the kidnappings. The former spy chief and a police officer were accused of accepting more than 100,000 euros ($112,000) from Block in exchange for returning her children from Denmark, where they lived with her ex-husband. The trial is ongoing. What do we know about the alleged documents that were transmitted? Few details are available about the contents of the 2,000 documents, but German media outlet Suddeutsche Zeitung reported that several of them were related to Iran’s nuclear program and the Russian military. He added that other materials were highly sensitive and classified as secret by allied intelligence agencies in other countries. What has the government said? Marc Henrichmann, chairman of parliament’s intelligence oversight committee, said in a statement to the “Anyone who allies himself with the enemies of our liberal democracy will be exposed,” he said, adding that Hanning’s alleged actions would amount to “trampling on his official duties.” The current head of the BND, Martin Jaeger, told the German newspaper Rheinische Post that the agency “quickly conducted extensive internal investigations” into the former boss before federal prosecutors took over the case. and for me, there are no compromises when it comes to internal security,” Jaeger said, adding that “I had not questioned any of my goals or any of my priorities.” Have there been similar espionage scandals in Germany before? Yes. In 2023, a high-ranking German intelligence officer, identified as “Carsten L,” was charged with high treason when prosecutors alleged that he had obtained classified information about the war in Ukraine and the Wagner mercenary group and shared it with the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB). His case is ongoing. In 1974, West German Chancellor Willy Brandt was forced to resign following revelations that an East German spy had worked as his closest collaborator for almost two years.
