"Exploited State Secrets for Profit": German Intelligence Rocked by Espionage Arrest of Former Chief

Germany's former spy chief August Hanning is led from his home on Tuesday morning.

Foto: SPIEGEL TV Magazin

The arrest of ex-BND chief August Hanning has sent shockwaves through the intelligence world. Yet Hanning’s dubious consulting work was no secret. Does German intelligence have a systemic problem?

By Sven Becker, Jürgen Dahlkamp, Jan Friedmann, Astrid Geisler, Matthias Gebauer, Christoph Giesen, Claas Meyer-Heuer, Hannes Munzinger, Nicola Naber, Christopher Piltz, Sven Röbel, Marcel Rosenbach, Fidelius Schmid, Timo Schober, Sara Wess und Wolf Wiedmann-Schmidt

08.10.2026, 15.30 Uhr

It is 8:58 a.m. on Tuesday morning when masked police officers lead the older gentleman out the door of his brick house. He is wearing a white shirt under a black jacket, his white hair combed to the side. Upright, without handcuffs, outwardly composed, he walks to a black minibus the police have parked in front of his home. August Hanning, the former president of Germany’s foreign intelligence service, the BND, has been arrested. Ready to be taken to the investigating judge in Karlsruhe.

The raid in the municipality of Nordwalde near Münster has produced powerful shock waves. For years, Hanning, 80, was one of the most powerful men in Germany's security apparatus, with posts in the Federal Chancellery, the Interior Ministry – and the BND.

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The world of the intelligence services is rich in scandals and scandalettes. But the accusations investigators have leveled against Hanning are of a different dimension. The case has all the ingredients of an affair of state.

The allegations against him and an alleged accomplice call the international credibility of Germany's foreign intelligence service into question. And they cast a harsh light on the conduct of longtime senior officials who, as well-provided-for retirees, turned their contacts and insider knowledge into extra money. Or, as Hanning is accused of doing, perhaps even having "exploited state secrets for profit,” which he denies.

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