German authorities have arrested a former head of the country's foreign intelligence service on suspicion that he passed classified state secrets to a foreign intelligence agency, the federal prosecutor's office announced Tuesday. The arrest marks a rare and highly sensitive case involving a figure who once sat at the very top of Germany's espionage apparatus.
August Hanning, who served as president of the Federal Intelligence Service, known by its German acronym BND, from 1998 to 2005, was taken into custody in Bad Toelz-Wolfratshausen, a town in the southern German state of Bavaria. According to the federal prosecutor's office, Hanning, 80, is "strongly suspected of treasonous espionage, spying out state secrets, attempted treason, and espionage."
The case extends beyond Hanning himself. A former aide, identified only as Manfred D. in keeping with German privacy rules, was also arrested Tuesday, in the western German town of Steinfurt. Prosecutors have charged him with aiding and abetting attempted treason and treasonous espionage. The two arrests, carried out on the same day in different parts of the country, suggest a coordinated operation by federal investigators.
In a statement announcing the arrests, the federal prosecutor's office did not disclose which foreign intelligence service the two men are suspected of working for. That omission leaves open a critical question at the heart of the case: which country allegedly received the sensitive material. Authorities also searched the premises of both men on Tuesday, part of an effort to gather further evidence.
According to prosecutors, Manfred D. occupied a particularly sensitive position within the BND. He first served as Hanning's chief of staff and later held the same role for several subsequent BND presidents, a tenure that stretched from 2012 until 2026. "In his role, he had access to confidential information," the prosecutor's office said. That access, maintained across multiple leadership transitions at the agency, would have placed him in a position to handle some of Germany's most closely guarded intelligence.
Investigators believe the two men reached an arrangement in 2010 under which Manfred D. would continuously transmit valuable intelligence from the BND to Hanning in exchange for payment. The alleged scheme, according to the current findings, operated quietly for years while Manfred D. remained embedded inside the intelligence service.
The scale of the alleged transfer is significant. Prosecutors said the evidence so far indicates that over the years Manfred D. provided Hanning with approximately 2,000 documents, many of which contained classified information intended exclusively for the federal intelligence service's internal purposes, particularly for executive intelligence briefings. Such briefings typically represent the most distilled and sensitive assessments produced by an intelligence agency for its top leadership.
Prosecutors allege that Hanning put the information to use in private consulting work. In at least one instance, they say, he "used classified intelligence provided by Manfred D. to draft an analysis for an officer of a foreign intelligence service." That single alleged act, if proven, would sit at the center of the treason and espionage accusations against him.
The case is unusual not only because of the seniority of the main suspect but also because of the length of the alleged operation. Hanning left the BND's top post in 2005, meaning the alleged payments and transfers began roughly five years after his official tenure ended, while his former aide was still serving inside the agency. The arrangement is alleged to have continued through multiple changes in the BND's leadership.
Hanning's arrest carries particular weight in Germany, where the BND operates under strict parliamentary oversight and where revelations about intelligence activities have previously sparked intense political debate. A former agency president facing treason accusations raises uncomfortable questions about oversight, vetting, and the movement of former senior officials into private consulting work that may intersect with their old networks.
The federal prosecutor's office has not indicated how long the investigation has been running or what prompted authorities to move against the two men on Tuesday. It also has not said whether additional suspects or charges may follow. The searches of the men's premises suggest investigators are still assembling the full picture of the alleged exchange.
Under German law, treasonous espionage and related charges carry severe penalties, reflecting the gravity with which the state treats the disclosure of intelligence secrets. The designation of "attempted treason" in the charges against both men indicates prosecutors believe some of the alleged conduct did not reach completion but was nonetheless criminal in intent.
Details about the foreign intelligence service involved, the nature of the roughly 2,000 documents, and the financial arrangements between the two men remain undisclosed. The federal prosecutor's office has released only a summary of its findings, and further information is likely to emerge as the investigation and any eventual court proceedings advance.
For now, the arrests represent one of the most striking espionage cases in recent German history, touching the highest levels of the country's foreign intelligence establishment. An 80-year-old former spy chief and his longtime chief of staff now stand accused of turning the BND's own secrets into a years-long, paid arrangement with an unidentified foreign power.
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