Papers purchased from the secret service: Ex-BND chief Hanning arrested on suspicion of espionage

The incident is likely to shock the Federal Intelligence Service (BND). Early on Tuesday morning, police arrested former BND President August Hanning at his home near Münster in North Rhine-Westphalia. The accusation: attempted treason, spying on state secrets and secret service agent activity. The 80-year-old is said to have bought internal BND information for a fee for many years and used it for his private consulting firm. He is also said to have been in contact with a foreign secret service.

The federal prosecutor's office confirmed the arrest. Hanning is said to have received internal information from the BND since 2010 at the latest. He left office at the end of 2005 after seven years as president. He then worked for four years as State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of the Interior before becoming a consultant on security issues.

In the latter role, Hanning is said to have bought the information from the BND - from his former office manager in the secret service, Manfred D. The Bavarian was also arrested on Tuesday, in his home in the Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen district. He accompanied Hanning as an assistant when he worked as State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of the Interior from 2005 to 2009. From 2012, Manfred D. went back to the BND and worked there, among other things, for various presidents as an office manager - and thus had access to various internal information.

Manfred D. is said to have forwarded almost 2,000 internal BND documents to Hanning for years, intended for the house management or the intelligence briefing in the Federal Chancellery. According to current knowledge, the transfer apparently only ended in mid-2022. According to the Federal Prosecutor's Office, Hanning is said to have used the information "for profit".

In one case, Hanning is also said to have prepared an analysis for an employee of a foreign intelligence security apparatus. According to the Federal Prosecutor's Office, he was also in "intensive exchanges" with a member of another state intelligence service. This was provided with political information “over several years,” including material from Manfred D. When asked, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office also left it open which service this was. According to taz information, this is a service that is rated as hostile to Germany, but not to Russia.

The suspicion against Hanning arose after a house search in September 2025 as part of the investigation against the steak house heiress Christina Block. She is accused of having her two youngest children kidnapped because of a custody dispute. Hanning and a retired LKA officer from Hamburg are said to have accepted a corresponding order from Block as those responsible for a security company. During the raids in autumn 2025, the offices of several people from the security area were searched, including Hanning's private home. The investigators are said to have come across the BND documents.

Investigations were then confidentially initiated against Hanning. In May 2026, the Federal Prosecutor's Office took over the case.

Hanning's lawyer initially left an inquiry about the arrest open. BND President Martin Jäger said that his company had “initiated extensive internal investigations early and immediately, which substantiated the suspicion.” Jäger promised: "For the BND and me, there are no compromises when it comes to internal security. None of my goals, none of my priorities will be called into question by this process."

Marc Henrichmann (CDU), chairwoman of the intelligence services control committee in the Bundestag, told the taz that with the arrest the constitutional state is showing its ability to act. “The state is sending an important signal to the outside world as well as to the inside: working with secret information is a question of national security and not a petty crime.” A former authority president who allegedly revealed secret information about his personal relationships “not only tramples on his official duties, but also betrays all the values ​​of the German security authorities.” Anyone who allies themselves with the enemies of liberal democracy does not go unnoticed, says Heinrichmann. “We will not tolerate betrayal of secrets.”

Green Konstantin von Notz, also part of the control committee, also called for “quick and complete” clarification.

Another espionage case had already shaken the BND at the end of 2022. The former head of department Carsten L. was arrested because he is said to have passed on internal documents to the Russian secret service FSB - in the middle of the Ukrainian war. A trial is currently underway against him and a co-defendant before the Berlin Court of Appeal.