BERLIN (AP) — A former head of Germany's foreign intelligence service was arrested Tuesday on suspicion that he passed state secrets to a foreign intelligence service, the federal prosecutor's office said.
August Hanning, who led the Federal Intelligence Service, known by its German acronym BND, from 1998 to 2005, is “strongly suspected of treasonous espionage, spying out state secrets, attempted treason, and espionage,” the federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
Hanning, 80, was arrested in Bad Toelz-Wolfratshausen in southern Germany. A former aide, identified as Manfred D., was also arrested Tuesday in Steinfurt in western Germany and has been charged with aiding and abetting attempted treason and treasonous espionage.
The statement did not reveal who the two men were suspected of spying for.
The premises of both men were searched Tuesday.
The prosecutor's office said Manfred D. worked as Hanning's chief of staff and later served as chief of staff for several subsequent BND presidents from 2012 until 2026.
“In his role, he had access to confidential information,” the prosecutor's office said.
Both suspects are believed to have agreed in 2010 to have Manfred D. continuously transmit valuable intelligence from the BND to Hanning in exchange for payment, the statement said.
“The current findings suggest that, over the years, Manfred D. provided Hanning with approximately 2,000 documents, many of which contained classified information to be used exclusively by the federal intelligence service for internal purposes, particularly for executive intelligence briefings,” the statement said.
Hanning used the information in private consulting work, and on one occasion "used classified intelligence provided by Manfred D. to draft an analysis for an officer of a foreign intelligence service.”
The office did not say which country the foreign agent worked for and said “it has yet to be determined if the material reached the intended recipient.”
The statement added that “Hanning was in close contact with a representative of another foreign intelligence service, to whom he passed on political information, partially based on material provided by Manfred D., for several years.”
Hanning came under scrutiny in a separate investigation into the abduction of Hamburg businesswoman Christina Block’s children from her ex-husband.
The investigation into that case 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 Block 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 popular national steakhouse chain Block House. The custody trial has received a lot of attention in the country, with German tabloids offering heavy coverage from the court.
A message to the BND for comment was not immediately returned.
This version corrects the story to describe the suspect as the former head of foreign, not domestic, intelligence.
August Hanning, the former president of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), arrives at the German parliament Bundestag in Berlin on Oct. 2, 2015. (Michael Kappeler/dpa via AP)
August Hanning, the former president of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), appears as a witness before the NSA investigative committee at the German parliament Bundestag in Berlin on Oct. 1, 2015. (Michael Kappeler/dpa via AP)
