One of Germany’s biggest espionage scandals has broken. August Hanning, who led the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) from 1998 to 2005, has been taken into custody along with his former chief of staff. According to federal prosecutors, for more than a decade the two men used classified intelligence material for money, and some of it may have reached foreign intelligence services.

Hanning, 80, was detained on Tuesday, 6 October, at his home in Nordwalde near Münster. On the same day his former chief of staff, Manfred D., 64, was arrested in Bad Tölz, Bavaria. Properties belonging to both men were searched, and the federal court remanded both in custody on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Germany’s former foreign intelligence chief August Hanning has been arrested on suspicion of treason and accused of selling state secrets to a foreign power https://t.co/9rdNT79qBA https://t.co/UPARUrfEpU

— Financial Times (@FT) October 6, 2026

2,000 classified documents over twelve years

According to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, Hanning is “strongly suspected of treasonous espionage, spying out state secrets, attempted treason, and espionage.” Manfred D. is charged with aiding and abetting.

Prosecutors say the two men agreed in spring 2010 that Manfred D. would regularly pass BND material to Hanning in exchange for payment. By then Manfred D. no longer worked for Hanning. Between 2012 and 2026 he served as chief of staff to several later BND presidents, which gave him direct access to the most sensitive information. Prosecutors say he handed over around 2,000 documents, many of them classified and intended for internal use only, such as executive intelligence briefings. The supply of information continued until June 2022.

After leaving the BND, Hanning became state secretary at the Interior Ministry and later worked as a security consultant. Prosecutors say he used the material in this private consulting work. According to prosecution spokesperson Ines Peterson, Hanning used the classified information to prepare an analysis for an employee of a foreign intelligence service. In another case, he allegedly passed on information after an extensive exchange with an employee of a different intelligence service.

August Hanning Photo: MICHAEL KAPPELER / dpa Picture-Alliance via AFP

Prosecutors have not named which countries’ services may have received the material. Der Spiegel reports that investigators are examining a Chinese lead, as Hanning allegedly kept close contact with a Chinese general. Another lead points to Azerbaijan. Baku called this “unfounded disinformation and unacceptable information manipulation,” and stressed that the German Federal Prosecutor’s Office has not named Azerbaijan. According to WDR, NDR and the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Russia is not involved in the case.

Hanning’s lawyer said: “My client is being wrongfully prosecuted.”

“The BND’s crown jewels”

The news came as a shock to the intelligence community. Arndt Freytag von Loringhoven, former deputy head of the BND, said Hanning’s arrest had the “impact of an atomic bomb.” He described the leaked material as among the service’s “crown jewels.” Several Western European services are reportedly assessing the damage. It has also been suggested that the documents may have included US intelligence from the CIA, which American agencies have not confirmed.

The case came to light in an unusual way. The investigation grew out of a different case: in January 2024, the children of Hamburg businesswoman Christina Block were abducted from her ex-husband in Denmark, in the middle of a lengthy custody battle. Prosecutors say Hanning and a retired Hamburg police official, as executives of a security firm, may have accepted a contract in 2022 to abduct the children. The evidence in the espionage case was found when Hanning’s home was searched in connection with that investigation.

Political fallout

A spokesperson for Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the government “takes this case extremely seriously” and fully supports the investigators. The Bundestag committee overseeing the intelligence services has launched a special inquiry. The Interior Ministry is examining whether Hanning breached confidentiality rules during his time as state secretary.

Konstantin von Notz, a Green MP who sits on the oversight committee, expressed shock. He is calling for former intelligence chiefs and people with high-level security clearances to be barred from private consultancy work after leaving office.

Cracks in Germany’s security system

The scandal comes at a bad time for Berlin. Martin Jäger, the current BND president, recently spoke of a “shadow war” with Russia, and Germany is facing hybrid attacks, sabotage and espionage. That a former head of the service and a chief of staff who served several presidents were able to take classified material out undisturbed for years raises serious questions. One is how well the German intelligence service controls itself internally. Another is how far allies can trust the security of the information they share with Berlin.