Former head of German foreign intelligence August Hanning and his former assistant are suspected of espionage.

A former head of Germany’s foreign intelligence service was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of passing state secrets to a foreign intelligence service, federal prosecutors said.

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August Hanning, who headed the Federal Intelligence Service, known by its German acronym BND, from 1998 to 2005, is “strongly suspected of treasonous espionage, spying on state secrets, attempted treason and espionage,” the federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

Hanning, 80, was arrested at his home in Norwalde, near the town of Münster in northwestern Germany. A former collaborator, Manfred D, was also arrested on Tuesday in Bad Tölz, southern Bavaria, and charged with complicity in attempted treason and treasonous espionage. Following federal court hearings on Tuesday and Wednesday, both men were remanded in custody.

“In one case, it is suspected that Mr. Hanning used classified information to prepare an analysis for an employee of a foreign intelligence service,” Ines Peterson, a spokeswoman for the federal prosecutor’s office, told German media.

“In another case, he allegedly passed on information following an in-depth exchange, also with an employee of another intelligence service.”

Neither Peterson nor the prosecutor’s office’s earlier statement revealed for whom exactly the two men were suspected of spying or for which foreign intelligence services they provided classified information. The premises belonging to the two men were searched on Tuesday evening.

“The federal government takes this matter very seriously and provides its full support to the investigating authorities,” a spokesperson for German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told reporters on Wednesday.

The prosecutor’s office said Manfred D. worked as Hanning’s chief of staff and then served as chief of staff to several subsequent BND presidents from 2012 to 2026. “In his role, he had access to confidential information,” the prosecutor’s office said.

The two suspects allegedly agreed in 2010 that Manfred D. permanently transmitted valuable information from the BND to Hanning in exchange for payment, the statement said.

“Current findings suggest that over the years, Manfred D. provided Hanning with approximately 2,000 documents, many of which contained classified information intended for use 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 Manfred D., who under German confidentiality rules cannot be identified by his full name, provided Hanning with classified information until June 2022, Peterson said.

Hanning was the subject of a separate investigation into the kidnapping of Hamburg businesswoman Christina Block’s children from her ex-husband in Denmark in January 2024 as part of a long-running custody battle. The investigation into the case led to Tuesday’s arrests.

The current proceedings stem from evidence found during a search of Hanning’s home in connection with the kidnapping case, federal prosecutors said.

Hanning and a retired official from the Hamburg State Criminal Police are suspected of having accepted a contract with the businesswoman in 2022 to kidnap her children while they were managers of a security company, the prosecutor’s office announced in the fall of 2025, according to the German news agency dpa.

The Blocks are a prominent Hamburg family, best known for their popular national chain of steakhouses “Block House”. The custody trial received a lot of attention in the country, with German tabloids providing extensive media coverage of the court.

German opposition lawmaker Konstantin von Notz said he was shocked by the allegations against Hanning and called for a swift investigation.

“This is a hard-hitting and deeply disturbing story,” said von Notz, a member of the Green party and also a member of the German parliamentary committee that oversees the intelligence services.

“We hope for a prompt and thorough investigation into the egregious allegations against former BND leader Hanning,” he said.

Van Notz also called on the German state to ban former senior executives and those with high-level security clearances from engaging in private consulting activities after leaving office, an issue he called a national security interest.