Azerbaijan affair: The ex-BND boss and his connections

August Hanning was very busy until the end. He was often a welcome guest at receptions at foreign embassies and at conferences in Berlin. Especially at events organized by countries that have repeatedly been accused of significant human rights violations. In August 2025, the 80-year-old was re-elected to the board of the German-Azerbaijani Forum (DAF).

The Federal Public Prosecutor's Office is now accusing the former president of the Federal Intelligence Service BND and ex-state secretary of "spying out state secrets, attempted treason and acting as an agent."

Ever since Spiegel laid a line of suspicion on Azerbaijan as the recipient of alleged Hanning secret dossiers, there has been a search for clues in the Caucasus. In fact, German-Azerbaijani special relations are well known: several active or now resigned members of the Bundestag from the CDU/CSU have already been accused of corruption and even convicted because of the so-called Azerbaijan connection.

One of them was the Mecklenburg CDU Bundestag member Karin Strenz. Among other things, she is known to have wished the Azerbaijani ruler Ilham Aliyev “a long life and a hard hand” with a toast at an Azerbaijan evening in the House of the Parliamentary Society in Berlin. The bribery investigation against Strenz could not be completed because she died on a flight back from Cuba in 2021.

Not only Hanning was on the board and board of trustees of the DAF: the former state secretaries Wolf-Ruthart Born, Hans-Friedrich von Ploetz and Otto Hauser also continue to be members of the lobby association's board. And before 2025, even former Federal Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher (FDP) and other influential active CDU/CSU MPs and officials were members of the lobby network.

Azerbaijan, which became infamous because of a bribery scandal at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, is of considerable importance for Germany and the West, both politically and economically: the authoritarian country's rich oil and gas reserves on the Caspian Sea represent an alternative to Russian raw materials.

And it wasn't just Union politicians who were entangled with Azerbaijan. The PR company of former Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer (Greens) had represented the Azerbaijani alternative Nabucco to Gazprom's Nord Stream gas pipeline since 2009. Unsuccessful: The Russian Baltic Sea pipeline from Gazprom lobbyist Gerhard Schröder (SPD) prevailed.

Hanning was BND President from 1998 to 2005 - during Gerhard Schröder's term of office. Hanning then moved to the Federal Ministry of the Interior as State Secretary under the CDU man Wolfgang Schäuble.

Azerbaijan, to which, according to German media reports, Hanning is said to have handed over confidential papers through a local secret service agent, has had three services since the dissolution of the Soviet secret service: The state security service DTX is a type of secret police. The XKX is Azerbaijan's foreign intelligence service. And with the XDMX, President Aliyev essentially has his own secret service that is supposed to protect him, his family and the country's most important source of income: the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline.

Azerbaijan is a customer of the Israeli NSO Group, whose software Pegasus - installed undetected on third-party mobile phones - is used to spy on opposition figures. In addition, the country should maintain the best contacts with the Israeli Mossad and allow it to operate through its territory in neighboring Iran.

But Hanning was not only active in the DAF. He had founded his own consulting firm. He could also be seen regularly at events about Russia, China and the Gulf States.

According to the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office, the former head of the German foreign secret service is said to have received around 2,000 secret BND documents through his former office manager Manfred D., who has also since been arrested: "Probably in the spring of 2010, the accused agreed with each other that Manfred D. would continually provide the accused Hanning with valuable information from the Federal Intelligence Service in return for a fee," said the Federal Prosecutor's Office. “The accused Hanning should be able to use the information profitably as part of the private consulting work he has since started.”