Ex-Foreign Intelligence Chief August Hanning Arrested Over Espionage and Treason Allegations

A former head of Germany’s foreign intelligence service was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of passing state secrets to a foreign intelligence agency, the federal prosecutor’s office stated.

August Hanning, 80, who led the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) from 1998 to 2005, is strongly suspected of treasonous espionage, state secret-spying, attempted treason, and espionage, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

Hanning was arrested in Bad Toelz-Wolfratshausen in southern Germany. A former aide, identified as Manfred D, was also arrested on Tuesday in Steinfurt in western Germany and has been charged with aiding and abetting attempted treason and treasonous espionage.

In one instance, Hanning is suspected of using classified information to prepare an analysis for an employee of a foreign intelligence service, Ines Peterson, a spokesperson for the federal prosecutor’s office, told German media outlets. In another instance, he is alleged to have passed on information following an extensive exchange with an employee of another intelligence service.

The prosecutor’s office has not disclosed exactly which foreign intelligence services the two men are suspected of spying for or which agencies received the classified information. Premises belonging to both men were searched late on Tuesday.

Both suspects are believed to have agreed in 2010 for Manfred D. to continuously transmit valuable intelligence from the BND to Hanning in exchange for payment, the statement said.

Over the years, Manfred D. provided Hanning with approximately 2,000 documents, many containing classified information reserved for federal intelligence service internal use, particularly executive intelligence briefings, the statement said.

Hanning used the information in private consulting work, and Manfred D., subject to German privacy rules and thus identifiable only as Manfred D., provided Hanning with classified information until June 2022, Peterson said.

Hanning also faced scrutiny in a separate investigation into the abduction of Hamburg businesswoman Christina Block’s children from her ex-husband in Denmark in January 2024, during a lengthy custody battle. That investigation led to Tuesday’s arrests.

The current proceedings stem from evidence found during a search of Hanning’s residence in connection with that case, the federal prosecutor’s office stated.

Hanning and a retired official from the Hamburg State Criminal Police Office are suspected of having accepted a contract from the businesswoman in 2022 to abduct her children while serving as executives of a security firm, the public prosecutor’s office announced in the fall of 2025, according to German news agency dpa.

The Blocks are a prominent Hamburg family, best known for their national steakhouse chain ‘Block House’. The custody trial has received significant attention in the country, with German tabloids offering extensive coverage from the court.

German opposition lawmaker Konstantin von Notz expressed shock at the allegations against Hanning and called for a quick investigation.

“This is a hard-hitting and deeply troubling story,” said von Notz, a member of the Greens party and head of the German parliament committee overseeing the intelligence services.

“We expect a swift and thorough investigation into the egregious allegations levelled against former BND chief Hanning,” he said.

Von Notz also called on the German state to bar former top executives and those with top-level security clearances from engaging in private consultancy work after vacating office, a matter he classified as a national security interest.

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