BND Affair: The Ex-President in Custody, Secrecy Under Stress Test

On Tuesday, German federal prosecutors had former BND president August Hanning and his former chief of staff Manfred D. arrested. Both are in pre-trial detention. Hanning, who ran the Federal Intelligence Service from 1998 to 2005, is strongly suspected by investigators of offences including treasonous espionage and attempted treason. Manfred D. is accused of aiding and abetting. According to prosecutors, from spring 2010 at the latest he obtained internal BND information in exchange for payment, around 2,000 documents in total. D. served as chief of staff to several BND presidents from 2012 to 2026.

Prosecutors say Hanning used the information for private consulting and on one occasion wrote an analysis for an officer of a foreign intelligence service. They have not said which country. Both are presumed innocent; no court has established any of this.

An intelligence service lives off knowing things others do not. This time it has to find out what others knew about it.

Whatever the outcome, the case is an institutional ordeal. The suspicion reaches the outer office of the agency's leadership, across 16 years and several presidents. What checks were in place, who had access, why did nobody notice? The BND now has to demonstrate accountability while explaining why it cannot say much about the circumstances that require it.