German authorities, according to reports, arrested former Federal Intelligence Service chief August Hanning on Tuesday on suspicion of treasonous espionage, obtaining state secrets, attempted treason, and acting on behalf of a foreign intelligence service.
Federal prosecutors said officers also detained a former BND employee identified as Manfred D.
Federal Criminal Police officers arrested the 80-year-old Hanning in North Rhine-Westphalia, while Manfred D. was taken into custody in Bavaria. Investigators also searched properties in Berlin as part of the expanding federal case.
Germany’s Federal Prosecutor’s Office said both men were expected to appear before judges at the Federal Court of Justice. The judges will determine whether they should remain in pretrial detention while investigators continue examining the alleged intelligence operation.
“The accused Hanning is under strong suspicion of espionage constituting treason,” prosecutors said. The allegations concern conduct that took place years after Hanning left the BND.
According to investigators, Hanning and Manfred D. allegedly reached an arrangement in the spring of 2010 under which the former aide would continue supplying him with valuable intelligence.
Prosecutors say Manfred D. provided the material “in exchange for remuneration,” while Hanning used some of it in his private consulting work.
The alleged document flow continued for years. Prosecutors believe Manfred D. passed approximately 2,000 documents to Hanning through June 2022, many containing classified information reserved exclusively for internal BND use.
Some of the material was particularly sensitive. Investigators say it included briefings prepared for regular intelligence meetings involving senior security officials at the German Chancellery.
Manfred D. had been unusually well placed to obtain such material. He previously served as Hanning’s bureau chief and later became chief of staff to several successive BND presidents, remaining inside the agency from March 2012 until March 2026.
“The current findings suggest that, over the years, Manfred D. provided Hanning with approximately 2,000 documents,” federal prosecutors said. Many of those documents, they added, contained information intended solely for use inside Germany’s foreign intelligence service.
Hanning allegedly did more than simply retain the documents for private reference. Prosecutors say he used classified intelligence on at least one occasion to prepare an analysis for an officer working for a foreign intelligence service.
“On one occasion, Hanning used classified intelligence … to draft an analysis for an officer of a foreign intelligence service,” prosecutors said. Investigators added that they have not yet established whether “the material reached the intended recipient.”
Authorities also accuse Hanning of maintaining a longstanding relationship with a representative of a second foreign intelligence organization. During that relationship, prosecutors allege, he passed political information that was partly derived from material supplied by Manfred D.
Federal prosecutors have not publicly identified either of the foreign intelligence services involved. German media reports have suggested that the services are not believed to be Russian, but authorities have not confirmed that claim.
Manfred D. faces allegations of aiding and abetting attempted treason and treasonous espionage. Prosecutors argue that his continued access to sensitive BND material allowed him to supply Hanning long after Hanning himself had left government service.
The case is politically striking in part because Hanning has publicly challenged parts of Germany’s prevailing foreign-policy narrative in recent years.
In 2024, he accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of involvement in the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines, an allegation that drew considerable attention in Germany.
The current espionage investigation, however, does not publicly link Hanning’s arrest to his statements about Nord Stream. Prosecutors have framed the case around his alleged possession, use and transfer of classified BND material dating back many years.
The investigation reportedly emerged almost by accident from a completely different criminal case. Hamburg authorities searched Hanning’s home and offices in September 2025 while examining allegations connected to businesswoman Christina Block and a bitter child-custody dispute.
Block has been accused of arranging the abduction of her two youngest children in late 2023. Investigators have also alleged that Hanning had some involvement in an earlier attempted abduction, an accusation he has denied.
During those searches, officers reportedly discovered an electronic storage device containing secret BND documents. Hamburg investigators then referred the material to federal prosecutors in May 2026, opening the path to the espionage inquiry that culminated in Tuesday’s arrests.
Hanning led the BND from December 1998 until November 2005, placing him at the top of German foreign intelligence during the post-Cold War period and the years immediately following the September 11 attacks.
He later served as a state secretary in the Interior Ministry until 2009 before moving into business and private security consulting.
The documents at the center of the current case reportedly date from well after Hanning left the BND. That distinction is central to prosecutors’ case, which alleges that he continued obtaining sensitive government intelligence through an insider rather than simply retaining documents from his own time in office.
The arrests come as Germany continues grappling with a series of serious intelligence-security cases. In another major case, former BND officer Carsten L. has been accused of passing classified information about the Ukraine war and the Wagner Group to Russia in return for roughly €400,000, allegations being tested in an ongoing trial.
For now, Hanning and Manfred D. remain suspects, not convicted offenders, and the identities of the foreign intelligence services allegedly involved remain undisclosed.
What prosecutors ultimately prove will determine whether the case becomes one of the most consequential espionage scandals to hit Germany’s intelligence establishment in years.
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