Two former heads of the primary German intelligence agency Der Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) have written a joint op-ed for the tabloid Bild lambasting Berlin politicians for running down the country’s intelligence capacity through a mixture of bureaucracy and underfunding.
Gerhard Schindler and August Hanning, who each individually served as head of the BND, warned that Germany faced becoming entirely dependent on foreign powers for intelligence and that Berlin was woefully unprepared for the return of “classic warfare” against hostile powers, as shown by its response to the Ukrainian war.
The BND, the only German intelligence agency able to operate abroad, is the German equivalent of the CIA or MI6, and works in conjunction with the domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, or BfV.
Both Schindler and Hanning called for Germany to mimic the practices of Anglo-American intelligence services such as the NSA or GCHQ in streamlining bureaucracy and reducing political oversight which they see as transforming the BND into a “toothless watchdog.”
Schindler, who served as head of the BND between 1998 and 2005, made headlines after he decried the refugee policies of the-then CDU Chancellor Angela Merkel, and published an article warning that the asylum influx was destabilising Germany.
According to the former chiefs, German intelligence was only “partially operational” abroad and suffered from a lack of funding as well as human sources of intelligence to enable officials to make decisions.
Since the invasion of Ukraine, the BND has been criticised for its lacklustre performance. Chancellor Olaf Scholz revealed on live TV that he and the BND were unaware of last month’s attempted coup by the Wagner group until it happened.
The agency has suffered from Russian moles and an embarrassing situation where BND head Bruno Kahl was left stranded in the Kyiv airport for two days when Russia’s invasion began. One former CIA official called the BND “arrogant, incompetent and useless” and a security risk for Western Europe.
Rather infamously, German intelligence has taken a prominent role in undermining German populists. The nation’s domestic intelligence chief Thomas Haldenwang has been criticising AfD voters as his agency formally commenced spying on the AfD due to allegations of extremism and pro-Russian sympathies.
Among their suggestions, Schindler and Hanning advise detaching the BND from the office of the Chancellor, who they currently report to, and that Germany create its own signals intelligence division, similar to America’s NSA.
Germany is not the only European nation suffering from failures in intelligence. Recent strategic geopolitical defeats in Africa have led to a public questioning of French intelligence services with President Macron blaming the spies for French loss of influence in Niger.
