Former head of the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND), August Hanning, was arrested by masked special police officers at his home in Nordwalde this week on suspicion of espionage. The 80-year-old Hanning is reported to have maintained a close relationship with a former senior Chinese Communist Party official, according to the German magazine Der Spiegel.
After a five-month investigation by the German Federal Prosecutor’s Office, a warrant was issued on Tuesday, October 6, accusing Hanning of treason, attempting to obtain state secrets, and acting as an agent for a foreign intelligence agency for profit. He has been formally placed in pretrial detention by the court.
Hanning, a key figure in Germany’s security system who served as the head of BND and State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of the Interior, allegedly obtained a large amount of highly classified BND internal documents through his former office manager, Manfred D., who was also arrested. Over 2000 leaked files included confidential briefings from the Chancellor’s secret intelligence meetings, covering topics like the Ukraine conflict and Iran’s nuclear program, described by a former BND deputy director as revealing the “jewels in the BND crown.”
Der Spiegel reported on Thursday, October 8, that in addition to providing BND intelligence analysis reports to Azerbaijani intelligence officials for profit, Hanning also maintained a long-term close relationship with the Chinese Communist Party.
It is reported that Hanning visited China multiple times, establishing a long-term friendship with former officials from the Chinese embassy in East Germany and retired General Wang Jianzheng. Wang, a senior expert on German issues, publicly thanked Hanning for his guidance in publishing his works.
Prosecutors are investigating whether Hanning continuously provided political analysis based on top-secret BND documents to Chinese intelligence over the past few years.
This years-long top-level espionage case has severely damaged the international reputation of Germany’s intelligence agencies. Recognizing the sensitivity of intelligence protection for friendly countries like the United States and Israel, current BND director Martin Jäger personally reached out to partner countries to express regret and initiate damage control measures.
While Hanning’s lawyer claims his client did not harm German interests and was wrongly accused, the exposure of a large number of confiscated confidential files during the search operation has turned this case into Germany’s most serious national security crisis in recent years. It has also exposed systemic flaws in the lack of supervision for high-ranking officials engaging in commercial consulting after retirement.
This so-called “biggest security crisis of the century in Germany” has unfolded dramatically. During an investigation into an international inheritance kidnapping case involving German steakhouse heiress Christina Block, law enforcement suspected Hanning of providing assistance and initiated a search against him. However, police accidentally discovered a wealth of recent BND’s core classified documents on a confiscated USB drive, leading the Federal Prosecutor’s Office to launch a months-long secret investigation into this top-level espionage case.