Von Notz proposes banning former officials with security clearances from private consulting
Germany’s federal prosecutor’s office announced Tuesday that August Hanning, the 80-year-old former head of Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service, was arrested on suspicion of treasonous espionage, spying out state secrets, attempted treason, and espionage. The arrest grew out of a separate investigation into the January 2024 abduction of the children of Hamburg businesswoman Christina Block from her ex-husband in Denmark during a custody battle that had been going on for several years, the office said.
“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 Hamburg 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 drawn heavy tabloid coverage in Germany.
Hanning, who led the BND from 1998 to 2005, was taken into custody Tuesday in Bad Toelz-Wolfratshausen in southern Germany. A former aide, identified as Manfred D. under German privacy rules, was also arrested Tuesday in Steinfurt in western Germany and charged with aiding and abetting attempted treason and treasonous espionage. The premises of both men were searched Tuesday.
The prosecutor’s office said Manfred D. worked as Hanning’s chief of staff at the BND 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 statement added.
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 prosecutor’s office 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 statement said. The office also said “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.”
The statement did not name the foreign country or intelligence service the two men were suspected of spying for and added that “it has yet to be determined if the material reached the intended recipient.” Manfred D., who in line with German privacy rules cannot be identified by his full name, provided Hanning with classified information for several years, the statement said, but it was not immediately clear if the collaboration continued until their arrests on Tuesday.
Konstantin von Notz, a Greens party member of the German parliament who sits on the committee overseeing the intelligence services, called the allegations shocking. “This is a hard-hitting and deeply troubling story,” von Notz said. “We expect a swift and thorough investigation into the egregious allegations leveled against former BND chief Hanning.”
Von Notz told Spiegel Online, “We have been criticizing the dubious and wide-ranging lobbying activities of former top officials and those with the highest security clearances in the Germany for years,” and called for banning former officials with security clearances from engaging in private consulting work after leaving office. A message to the BND seeking comment was not immediately returned.