Post-Nazi taboo fades as Germany seeks robust spy agency

Germany is considering a significant expansion of its foreign intelligence service, theBundesnachrichtendienst (BND), in an effort to counter Russian hybrid warfare and reduce its reliance on allied intelligence. Highlighting the urgency of the situation, BND chief Martin Jäger recently stated that “deterrence is not working yet,“ pointing to a deepfake influence campaign during last year’s parliamentary election and 321 police-recorded acts of sabotage as evidence of the growing threat.

Head of Friedrich Merz’s Chancellery Thorsten Frei is advocating for a “paradigm shift“ to address these vulnerabilities. His proposed measures include granting the BND access to private mobile phones, mandating data retention for up to a year, and authorizing powers to jam drone links or disable cryptocurrency wallets used to finance attacks. Frei openly acknowledges that several recent plots were thwarted only because of intelligence shared by international partners. To streamline these enhanced capabilities, he suggests concentrating oversight entirely within parliament’s intelligence control committee, rather than maintaining the involvement of the G10 body that traditionally reviews intrusive surveillance. Meanwhile, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt is pushing for comparable upgrades to theVerfassungsschutz, the domestic intelligence service, with both agencies already seeing budget increases of more than 25% this year.

These ambitions may extend even further. According to German media reports citing a leaked Chancellery draft, the BND could be authorized to conduct active cyber countermeasures and sabotage during a declarednachrichtendienstliche Sonderlage (special intelligence situation). The draft also outlines provisions for covert entry to install spyware, though these extreme measures would require additional executive and parliamentary approvals.

However, expanding intelligence capabilities remains deeply sensitive in Germany for historical reasons. After 1945, the Allies enforced theTrennungsgebot, a strict separation of intelligence and law enforcement powers designed to prevent the re-emergence of a Gestapo-style concentration of authority. Decades later, East Germany’s Stasi operated a massive surveillance apparatus that relied on roughly 189,000 “unofficial collaborators“ by 1989. The BND’s own early history is also highly contested. Research cited byDeutschlandfunk indicates that in the mid-1950s, approximately one in ten staff members were considered Nazi perpetrators “in the narrow sense.“ Consequently, any new operational powers will face strict legal guardrails. As established by a 2020 Constitutional Court ruling, even foreign telecommunications surveillance must remain firmly bound by fundamental rights and robust oversight.