The government of each country, in order to preserve its integrity and control relative security, sooner or later faces the need to create its own intelligence and counterintelligence. And although films and television present these organizations to us in a romanticized form, in fact their work is not so noticeable and more prosaic, which does not make it less important. Let's learn about the features of modern German intelligence, and also look at what this structure looked like in the past.
A little about the country of Heine and Goethe
Today, this European state ranks fourth in terms of living standards in the world, and it is hard to believe that in the first half of the twentieth century. it lay in ruins twice.
According to its structure, Germany is a parliamentary republic, headed by the Federal Chancellor.
The capital is Berlin, the official currency is the Euro and the language is German.
More than 80 million people live here, but every year thousands of people from all over the worldfalsely seek to move here.
To ensure the safety of all of them, as well as to maintain a high standard of living in the state, every year the government spends about half a billion euros on the maintenance of intelligence and counterintelligence in Germany. Why is this taxpayer spy organization so expensive?
Federal Intelligence Service
To better understand why the cost of the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) - BND (which is the modern official name for intelligence in Germany) - is so high, it is worth knowing a little about its resources.
At the moment, only according to official data, the staff has 7,000 people. In addition to the headquarters in Germany, the BND has 300 branches around the world. And these are only officially registered, and how many more secret spy shelters this organization has to maintain.
In order to stay "in the ranks", German intelligence has to constantly monitor the situation in the world, which requires not only human resources, but also technological ones. In particular, powerful computers, satellites, special spy devices, etc. And given how quickly this area is developing today, in order to keep up, the Germans come regularly to update equipment or even invent new ones, and this is not cheap.
Besides this, in order to prevent various chemical and biological attacks, the BND must have a staff of relevant specialists, and the equipment for them and themselves is also a very expensive pleasure. So thata budget equal to the cost of three Marvel films is not as big as it turns out.
Chronology of German intelligence services
As you can see, espionage is a very troublesome and expensive business. However, the Germans always had it well.
The great-grandfather of modern German intelligence (as it is called in the previous paragraph) was the Abwehr. It existed from 1919 to 1944
After the victory of the Allies for almost 2 years, the Germans did not have any espionage service, and only since 1946 it began to function again. The former Hitlerite Major General Reinhard Gehlen became its head, by the way, the educated institution was named after him - the Gehlen Organization. In this form, it lasted until 1956
Since April, OG has been transformed into the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND), which continues to function successfully to this day.
Having considered the chronology, it is worth dwelling in more detail on the history of each of the spy organizations that existed among the Germans.
Military intelligence and counterintelligence of Nazi Germany (Abwehr)
This name is well known to everyone who has ever watched "17 Moments of Spring", "Shield and Sword", "Omega Variant", "The Exploit of a Scout" or other Soviet spy war films.
For those who do not quite understand what the Abwehr (Abwehr) was doing, we clarify that officially inthe scope of his powers included espionage, counterintelligence and planning with the further implementation of acts of sabotage. Despite the dryness of this definition, in practice, blackmail, torture, murder, theft, kidnapping, forgery and other illegal acts were honored in this organization. At the same time, the lion's share of the time of the Abwehr employees still went to the analysis of the collected data, as well as attempts to disinform the enemy.
It is worth noting that although the Abwehr was created in 1919, but until 1928, different organizations were engaged in intelligence and counterintelligence, and the Abwehr was only a military counterintelligence group.
Only in April 1928 was the intelligence service of the Navy attached to it and turned into a full-fledged autonomous department. Now only the Abwehr had the right to engage in all kinds of espionage activities. However, at that time the apparatus of this institution was too small (about 150 employees) to fully function. True, this did not prevent him from fulfilling future duties of the Gestapo as well.
With the coming to power of the Fuhrer and the beginning of preparations for a large-scale war, the funding for the intelligence of Nazi Germany was significantly increased, as was its personnel, which by 1935 was already almost 1000 people.
By that time, Wilhelm Canaris became the head of the Abwehr. Together with Reinhard Heydrich, they reform the organization and share its functions with the Gestapo, which receives all civilian powers. While Abwehr becomes military intelligenceNazi Germany.
In this capacity, in 1938, the institution is part of the High Command of the Wehrmacht, however, only as a group. But by 1941 it had evolved to management, changing its name to "Abwehr Abroad".
Following the resignation of Canaris in 1944 and until its dissolution in 1945, this institution was subordinated to the General Directorate of Reich Security.
During the entire period of existence as a foreign intelligence agency of Germany, the following functions were assigned to the Abwehr.
- Collecting secret information about enemy forces and its military and economic potential.
- Keeping all German military preparations secret, thus ensuring the surprise of her attack. In fact, Abwehr was held responsible for the success of the blitzkrieg tactics.
- Disorganization of the rear of the enemy.
- Fight against foreign agents in the armed forces and the military-industrial complex of Germany.
Gehlen Organization
After the fall of the fascist regime and the victory of the allies, the country found itself without any intelligence organization for almost a year.
However, Reinhard Gehlen managed to correct this situation. In the last days of the war, he managed to take out the old archive of German military intelligence to hide. With his help, in the coming months, he managed to negotiate with the Americans, who a year later initiated the creation of a German spy agency, the Gehlen Organization. Unlike Abwehr, it was funded by the USand obeyed the leadership of this country until its own government appeared in Germany, which would decide the future fate of the offspring of Gehlen. The basic principles for organizing the work of the newly formed military intelligence agency in Germany were as follows:
- The organization was supposed to work under German leadership, but carry out US orders.
- If the interests of Germany and the United States diverge, the Gehlen Organization was supposed to represent the German side.
- Funding was undertaken by the US government. For this, the organization "shared" with them all the intelligence information it received, and also actively supported American agents.
- The main task of the Gehlen Organization was reconnaissance of the situation in Eastern Europe. In fact, it was espionage for the USSR and its friendly countries.
In 1953, the defeated state recovered and gained sovereignty, and the procedure for transferring all the "capacities" of this intelligence agency in Germany under the jurisdiction of its government began. The procedure took 3 years, and only by April 1, 1956, the Gehlen Organization was transformed by the BND, which successfully exists to this day.
A Brief History of BND
Immediately after the official opening, the BND positions itself as the German Foreign Intelligence Service. However, in the 70s. gradually, the circle of its interests also includes the prevention of the actions of terrorist groups on the territory of the state. This is facilitated by the scandal with the execution of Israeli athletes in Munich, during theOlympics.
Since 1978, the country's parliament has assumed responsibility for overseeing the activities of the BND, in accordance with the provisions of the Federal Act.
The eighties were quite calm for the intelligence of Germany. During these years, she concentrates more on collecting and analyzing data both domestically and internationally.
In the 1990s, the BND gradually emerged from the underground and publicized many aspects of its activities. In particular, it declassifies the location of the headquarters and holds "Open Days" for a select circle of civilians.
In the same years, the organization was restructured, and it concentrated on the fight against organized crime, the spread of weapons and terrorist threats. At the same time, the Federal Intelligence Law becomes the main document regulating the rights and obligations of the BND. By the way, it pays special attention to the issue of personal data protection.
In the 2000s, the sphere of influence of this intelligence agency grows. A department specializing in international terrorism is opened. In addition, during these years, the BND is especially close to the Federal Ministry of Defense and the German Federal Armed Forces, collecting and analyzing data for them.
Among the most striking events in the history of the BND over the past decades is the scandal with the disclosure of data on the organization's surveillance of its citizens and the transfer of information received to US intelligence represented by the NSA.
BND leaders
Over the years, 11 presidents have visited Germany as head of this intelligence agency:
- The first 12 years of the BND was led by Reinhard Gehlen.
- He was succeeded by Gerhard Wessel, who remained at the helm for a decade.
- From 1979 to 1983 intelligence was led by Klaus Kinkel.
- Eberhard Bloom was president for the next 3 years.
- Heribert Hellenbroich, who succeeded him, only served 26 days in August 1985
- Hans-Georg Wieck headed the Federal Service from 1985 to 1990
- Konrad Porzner held office for the next 6 years.
- Gerhard Güllich was officially listed as acting president from April to June 1996
- The next 2 years of intelligence in Germany was in charge of Hansjorg Geiger.
- From 1998 to 2005 this post was August Hanning.
- From 2005 to 2011 - Ernst Urlau.
- Until April 2016, Gerhard Schindler was president of the BND, but due to terrorist attacks in Europe, he was forced to resign.
Since then, Bruno Kahl, who is still acting, has been head of intelligence, which does not prevent him from doing his own job quite successfully
Structure and functions of BND
At the moment, the German Federal Intelligence Service consists of 13 departments:
- GL is an information and situation center. He monitors all events in the world and is the first to react in case of kidnapping of German citizens abroad.
- UF - specialized intelligence services. Their task is to collect and analyze geoinformation. It is obtained thanks to satellite photos and data obtained from open sources.
- EA -regions of activity and external relations. Responsible for the supply of weapons to the armed forces of Germany abroad. They also coordinate BND relations with intelligence agencies of other NATO member countries.
- TA - technical intelligence. Collects data on other countries' plans.
- TE - counterterrorism department. Focused on countering Islamic terrorist organizations, drug trafficking, illegal migration and money laundering.
- TW deals with weapons of mass destruction, nuclear chemicals and military equipment. He is trying to prevent their spread.
- LA and LB are departments that study the political and economic situation in certain countries and try to prevent crises there, including with the use of the German armed forces.
- SI - own security.
- IT - information technology department. Is the central technical service in BND for data processing and communications.
- ID - internal services. Deals with various administrative issues, in particular, the purchase or disposal of equipment.
- UM - BND relocation organization. Specializes in the arrangement of intelligence headquarters, as well as their dismantling, if necessary.
- ZY - central control. Coordinates the work of all departments of the BND, and also solves financial and personnel issues.
Who controls intelligence work
Although the Germans are a people renowned for their honesty and meticulousness in their work, they are also people. This means that there may be cases when the received power is used not for the benefit of the country, but forown use.
To prevent this from happening, Germany has developed 4 levels of control over the work of the BND:
- The strictest scrutiny of intelligence comes from the responsible minister, the Data Protection Officer and the Court of Accounts.
- Parliamentary Control Commission - another body looking to prevent spies from "playing around".
- Judicial control. Due to the specifics of intelligence work, in which it is sometimes necessary to violate the current legislation of Germany, it is only partially possible.
- Public control. Carried out by journalists and citizens, through various publications. The weakest of all of the above.
Other German secret services
As for the BND, despite the expanded range of its interests, it is primarily focused on intelligence - this is its priority. However, there are two more secret organizations in Germany with similar functions:
- BFF - Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution. Officially, this organization specializes in combating actions that threaten the constitutional order of Germany. That is, most of its employees are engaged in ensuring the security of federal agencies and protecting state secrets. However, in recent years, the BFF has taken on some of the responsibilities of the BND, fighting extremism and terrorism at home and abroad.
- MAD - military counterintelligence service. This is part of the armed forces of modern Germany, the internal secret servicewithin the Bundeswehr itself. She specializes in the same tasks that the BFF performs in the civil sphere. MAD has the same powers and is controlled by the same bodies and documents. Everything that the BFF does at the federal and local levels is also done by the MAD, but only in the Bundeswehr.
Every year, taxpayers allocate 260 million euros for the maintenance of the BFF, about 73 million for the MAD. This is without taking into account the cost of basic intelligence mentioned above. The work of these services is indeed very important, but the first thing that interests every tax-paying citizen is his safety. That's just, as the events of New Year's Eve 2015-2016 showed, not everything is fine with her in Germany. After all, more than 1,000 women in the center of Cologne were attacked by migrants and citizens of other countries. Therefore, I would like to hope that the government will draw the appropriate conclusions and instead of constantly increasing spending on spy games a la James Bond, it will allocate more funds for the needs of the law enforcement service, because they are the first to take the hit in case of any emergency in the country.
