It was August 2018, a time when August Hanning enjoyed pontificating in the media, burnished by years as a master spy at the forefront of the fight against Al-Qaeda. "You must, of course, be extremely cautious when sharing information," observed the former head of the BND, the German foreign intelligence service, from 1998 to 2005, speaking to Bild. He called for the exclusion of neighbouring Austria, which was deemed too unreliable: "It is essential that all parties are certain that their sensitive information is safe with the partner service. Secrets must be preserved."

The former senior official spoke as a true insider: during the same period and for at least twelve years, from 2010 to June 2022, he profited from massive leaks obtained at the highest levels of his former agency, including material provided by the CIA and MI6. Until his downfall. On Tuesday 6th October at 8:58 am, police escorted him from his home near Münster, in Westphalia. Placed in pre-trial detention, he is strongly suspected of "espionage" and "treason", according to a devastating statement from the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office – allegations which he denies.

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Glaring weaknesses

The case exposes the critical vulnerabilities of a service whose claim to secrecy appears highly questionable. The other suspect, Manfred Dankesreiter, was the long-serving chief of staff to the presidents of the BND from 2012 to March 2026. He is alleged to have sold Hanning nearly 2,000 documents, many of them classified, drafted in particular for the weekly meetings at the Chancellor's office. These constituted the most sensitive summaries, reserved for authorised officials at the very highest level. This represents an unprecedented penetration at the top of the security hierarchy in Western Europe since the end of the Cold War.

Friendship with John le Carré

At that time, August Hanning often engaged in conversation with John le Carré, whom he had met during his time at the BND. This "friendly" relationship - using the writer's own word - revealed the senior official's conservative inclinations. "The majority society in Germany today observes the growing number of Muslim communities whose self-assurance continues to grow, and this creates fear," wrote Hanning, according to their correspondence, parts of which are reproduced in the collection of letters Dans l'intimité d'un espion (In the Private Life of a Spy).

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According to the media outlet Correctiv, he counted Kazakhstan among his clients, while serving as regional director for the Russian region at the British economic intelligence consultancy G3 and as president of a Swiss private intelligence agency. In 2024, his family holding company reported equity of three million euros. "The Hanning affair also illustrates the inability of certain German elites to place national sovereignty above their freedom to accumulate wealth," observes Paul Maurice.

August Hanning made little secret of it: when interviewed by Spiegel while promoting the American company Motorola in 2017, he made it clear that he was not bound by "any non-compete clause or restriction on the professional activities of former civil servants." His network of influential foreign contacts grew; in June 2016, he was spotted at the launch of the pro-Kremlin lobbying group set up by Vladimir Yakunin, a former KGB agent and former deputy minister under Vladimir Putin. The following year, he joined the board of directors of the German-Azerbaijani Forum, a pro-Baku pressure group. Then he went too far - the Christina Block affair.

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