Did Debts Bring a German Intelligence Veteran to His Knees?

“Until recently, August Hanning knew Germany’s greatest secrets and guarded them. Today, the former head of the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) faces the shadow of suspicion regarding the betrayal of his country.

 

Exceptional Experience

 

On Tuesday morning, masked police officers escorted the imposing 80-year-old out of his red-brick home in Nordwalde, North Rhine-Westphalia. This is where the brickyard owner’s son grew up, and where he returned after an impressive career in German security agencies—having become an influential intelligence official with extensive connections. A shameful trial and long years in prison now await one of the most influential figures in German security.

 

However, the presumption of innocence applies until a court verdict is reached; therefore, any discussion of his alleged criminal activities must currently be framed in conditional terms or include the word "possibly."

 

Hanning built his career in the world of secrets—first guarding them, and later gathering and utilizing them for Germany’s benefit. A law graduate, he initially chose a career as a civil servant. First at the German Federal Ministry of the Interior, and later—during the tenure of Chancellor Helmut Schmidt—at the Federal Chancellery.

 

In 1986, A. Hanning became the officer responsible for the protection of classified information at the Permanent Representation in East Berlin. This served as a de facto West German embassy in the GDR; however, for political reasons, it could not officially bear that title, as the FRG did not recognize the Soviet-occupied part of the country. Among other duties, A. Hanning was responsible at the time for negotiating the release of political prisoners. He later recounted how deeply those years influenced him, speaking of West German men who had fallen into "honey traps" set by the Stasi and of the GDR regime's brutal treatment of its own citizens.

 

Following German reunification, A. Hanning returned to the Federal Chancellery and quickly found himself at the heart of German intelligence policy. In 1996, under the government led by Christian Democratic Chancellor Helmut Kohl, he became the coordinator for intelligence services; two years later, following a change of government, Social Democratic Chancellor Gerhard Schröder appointed him President of the BND—a position he held until 2005. A. Hanning was renowned as a professional and was regarded as a loyal yet independent thinker. A. Hanning found the BND in a sorry state: following the Cold War, it was plagued by financial troubles and lacked a clear strategic direction. Initially, he focused primarily on bringing the agency out of the shadows and relocating its headquarters from Pullach, Bavaria, to Berlin. When staff complained that they would constantly receive calls from the government requesting assessments of geopolitical developments, he reportedly replied: "That is exactly what I want." Later, officials from the German Chancellery noted that BND reports became more relevant, more focused on specific issues, and more useful.

 

A. Hanning sought to strengthen technical intelligence capabilities and stepped up cooperation with the US NSA. At the same time, he aimed to break down the traditional barriers to information sharing between the BND, the domestic intelligence agency (Office for the Protection of the Constitution), and the police. These agencies began to share information more actively regarding terrorist networks, arms trafficking, financial flows, and drug smuggling routes. This process culminated in 2004 with the establishment of the Joint Counter-Terrorism Centre in Berlin, in which the BND also participated. In 2005, when Angela Merkel became Chancellor of Germany, Hanning moved to the Ministry of the Interior; as State Secretary, he was responsible for domestic security, the Federal Police, migration and refugee affairs, and—above all—counter-terrorism. Amid a rise in Islamist attacks, Hanning sought to expand surveillance and police powers. He criticized the online leaking of information from within security agencies as a "culture of leaking."

 

Hanning retired in 2009. More precisely, as the German press noted, the new Interior Minister, Thomas de Maizière, placed him into temporary retirement. There was speculation that the State Secretary had amassed too much power and lacked loyalty. All his former colleagues agree: Hanning was always a colorful personality.

 

A Blow from Latvia

 

In 2010, Hanning founded "Hanning Consult," capitalizing on the assets he had accumulated over three decades of public service: international connections, knowledge of security structures, and direct access to political decision-makers. As reported by FAZ, another former head of a security agency also served as an advisor to this company: Hans-Georg Maaßen, the former president of the domestic intelligence agency—the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV)—who is now being monitored by his own former agency as a suspected right-wing extremist.

 

A. Hanning’s consulting work was international in scope, though he focused primarily on Russia, the post-Soviet space, China, and the Middle East. He also maintained ties to Azerbaijan; among other roles, he served on the board of the German-Azerbaijani Forum.

 

Furthermore, A. Hanning worked for a British consultancy at the company G3, where he was responsible for Russia and the former Soviet republics. From 2018, he also headed the Swiss company Pluteos AG, which provided services including geopolitical analysis and cybersecurity.

 

Even after leaving public service, Hanning remained close to the security sector; last September, he made a surprise appearance at the inauguration of the current BND chief, Martin Jäger—who, according to the *FAZ*, appeared surprised.

 

Hanning frequently spoke out publicly on German security issues; for instance, in 2015, he criticized Angela Merkel’s refugee policy. Highlighting geopolitical shifts, he advocated for granting the BND broader powers, describing the agency as a "vegetarian among intelligence services."

 

Hanning’s career suffered a major blow with the 2019 collapse of Latvia’s PNB Banka, where he had served on the supervisory board for two years. Along with other officials, he faced demands for €32 million in damages, resulting in the freezing of some of his assets. According to the German daily *Bild*, Hanning and another supervisory board member—former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen—face potential financial liability of up to €4 million. However, while A. F. Rasmussen has so far avoided such consequences, A. Hanning has already paid a price: his house in Germany and company shares were confiscated, and bailiffs seized two-thirds of his state pension—which amounted to up to €11,000 per month. He was effectively left relying solely on income from his private consultancy business.

 

On February 6, 2022, A. Hanning wrote to then-German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, asking him to raise the issue of the *PNB Banka* bankruptcy during the Latvian Prime Minister’s upcoming visit to Germany. He accused Latvian authorities of either being aware of—or obstructing the investigation into—illegal activities involving a change in shareholders and the siphoning off of more than €30 million. However, according to A. Hanning himself, he received no assistance from the Chancellor. Consequently, the German media has actively speculated that these very financial troubles drove A. Hanning to engage in criminal activity.

 

Shady dealings

 

The potential betrayal came to light during the investigation of another scandalous affair: the dispute between Hamburg businesswoman Christina Block and her ex-husband. Traces of A. Hanning were discovered while the circumstances surrounding her attempt to forcibly bring her children back from Denmark to Germany were being investigated. During the investigation of this case, a search of A. Hanning’s home and office last September uncovered internal BND documents that had been created after he had already left the agency. The trail soon led to his former chief of staff, Manfred D. It is believed that between 2010 and 2022, Manfred D. sold nearly 2,000 BND documents to his former boss, with whom he had worked at both the BND and the Ministry of the Interior (BMI). Having returned to the BND from the BMI and served as chief of staff for other agency presidents as well, Manfred D. had access to a vast amount of classified information. He retired in March of this year.

 

According to prosecutors, in at least one instance, A. Hanning used classified information to prepare analyses for an official from a foreign intelligence agency and to provide political consulting to a representative of another country.

 

German media were quick to speculate about which country he might have been cooperating with. Sources cited by the *FAZ* newspaper maintained that the analysis was not intended for Russia, even though A. Hanning had visited that country seven times after entering the private sector.

 

After *Der Spiegel* reported that A. Hanning’s clients might be based in Azerbaijan, representatives of that country were quick to deny the claim; Baku even lodged a formal protest with the German government. However, the oil-rich country did not come into focus by accident. Until these events, A. Hanning had been a board member of the German-Azerbaijani Forum. His colleagues included German politicians who were later convicted in the so-called Azerbaijan scandal.

 

Political intelligence based on BND data may have been intended for China—or, more precisely, according to *Der Spiegel*, for a Chinese military officer and high-ranking diplomat named Wang Jianzheng, who had previously worked in Germany. After retiring, A. Hanning visited China on several occasions, and W. Jianzheng even publicly expressed his gratitude for assistance in preparing the Chinese-language edition of Gerhard Schröder’s book.

 

One theory is that the Chinese may have been the intended recipients of highly significant information regarding the Russian military or Iran’s nuclear program—material contained within the 2,000 documents obtained from Manfred D.

 

Smaller-scale precedents

 

On Wednesday, an investigating judge at the Federal Court of Justice upheld the arrest warrant issued for the 80-year-old. A. Hanning is currently in pre-trial detention. Manfred D., who was arrested on Tuesday, is suspected of complicity in attempted treason and of espionage for the purpose of treason. Germany's chief prosecuting authority has brought charges against A. Hanning for intelligence-related activities, espionage amounting to high treason, the unauthorized collection of state secrets, and attempted high treason.

 

A. Hanning’s lawyer acknowledges that his client possessed confidential documents but denies that he transmitted the information contained within them information to Germany's detriment, "let alone in exchange for payment."

 

A. Hanning is the first former BND president to be placed in pre-trial detention on suspicion of espionage, though not the first German intelligence chief suspected of treason.

 

The first was Otto John, who headed the domestic intelligence agency, the BfV. However, his story is rather enigmatic. In July 1954, he drove from West Berlin to East Berlin. Two days later, East German radio announced that O. John had decided to defect to the East German authorities "for political reasons." The Bonn government initially believed he had been abducted. O. John himself publicly stated that by remaining in East Germany, he saw the best opportunities to work toward German reunification and counter the threat of a new war. Nearly a year and a half later, in December 1955, the defector returned to West Berlin in a Danish journalist's car. A year later, a court sentenced him to four years in prison, even though the prosecution itself considered the evidence weak. He unsuccessfully sought rehabilitation until his death in 1997.

 

What actually happened remains a subject of debate to this day. According to historian Michael Wala, O. John—who had been a member of the 1944... ...associated with the circle of conspirators behind the July 20 plot against Hitler, and viewed himself as an "executor of the resistance's legacy." Outraged by Chancellor Konrad Adenauer’s 1952 rejection of the Stalin Note, he agreed to meet with Soviet representatives—apparently unaware that they were KGB agents. They sought to turn him into an agent of influence. When John refused, he was drugged with powerful sedatives and taken to Moscow for interrogation; upon his return to the GDR, he lived under constant Stasi surveillance. "John went to East Berlin of his own volition, but remained there against his will," summarizes historian Bernd Stöver.

 

Another historical case echoes A. Hanning’s financial troubles. In August 1985, Hansjoachim Tiedge—head of the BfV division responsible for counter-espionage against the GDR—defected to East Germany. He was heavily in debt and struggled with alcohol abuse. Tiedge possessed knowledge of 816 BfV operations conducted in or against East Germany. The scandal forced the resignation of Heribert Hellenbroich, the former BfV chief who had only recently assumed the presidency of the BND. In 1990, Tiedge fled to Moscow, where he died in 2011. On the Verge of Reform

 

The scandal surrounding the alleged betrayal by A. Hanning erupted just as Germany was embarking on the most significant reform of the BND since World War II. "We are entering a new era for intelligence services," Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said when presenting the reform plans. "The era of the 'vegetarians' is coming to an end."

 

A package of draft laws regulating the activities of intelligence services—scheduled for a vote in November and potentially entering into force as early as January 2027—would grant the BND powers that neither A. Hanning nor his predecessors or successors could have even dreamed of.

 

Amid the scandal involving A. Hanning, discussions have also arisen regarding new rules that would restrict former intelligence personnel from sharing their expertise with other countries and increase the vigilance of current staff. Recently, an investigation by the daily *Süddeutsche Zeitung* and the public broadcaster WDR revealed that BND Vice President Dag Baehr had, until very recently, been using a mobile phone number that had been publicly available online since 2020. This phone number, along with Baehr’s email and home addresses, had been leaked after hackers attacked a US online auction company and exposed the data of approximately 3.4 million users. Since 2023... Mr. Baehr is one of the three BND vice-presidents responsible for strategic military intelligence abroad; he previously commanded the Bundeswehr’s Special Forces Command. Mr. Baehr himself described the use of the number as a mistake that has since been rectified.

 

However, the BND will also have to undertake an unexpected task: reassuring foreign partners that A. Hanning’s actions did not compromise them. According to the British daily *The Telegraph*, the UK’s intelligence service MI6 and relevant US agencies have been instructed to verify whether sensitive information was shared with Germany during the period in question.” [1]