Spiegel: German Ambassador to Ukraine to Head Countryʼs Intelligence

In Germany, the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) will have a new head — the German Ambassador to Ukraine Martin Jaeger.

Spiegel writes about this, citing sources.

The German government has not yet officially confirmed the change. However, according to Spiegel, the personnel decision was made a long time ago. The current BND president Bruno Kahl is scheduled to become the new German ambassador to the Vatican.

With Martin Jaeger, one of the Foreign Ministryʼs most experienced crisis diplomats, the BND is set to be reoriented in the coming years. This will involve significantly more funding for the intelligence agency. The government also wants to give the agency more flexibility in matters of foreign and technical intelligence.

The need for BND reform became apparent almost immediately after the change of government. The new Chancellor Friedrich Merz appointed Philipp Wolf, previously the deputy president of the BND, as the intelligence coordinator at the Chancellery. From that moment on, rumors began to circulate that Merz might also replace the head of the BND.

Martin Jaeger has had considerable experience in recent years working with intelligence services, both in Berlin and in crisis regions around the world. He worked at the Foreign Ministry, was press secretary to Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and in 2013 became ambassador to the capital of Afghanistan, Kabul. Later, he served as ambassador to Iraq (from 2021 in Baghdad). Since July 2023, he has been German ambassador to Ukraine.

Unlike previous changes at the BND, this time it is not a dismissal. Even before the collapse of the government coalition, Bruno Kahl had been considering the possibility of working as ambassador to the Vatican. This time, the new government is fulfilling his wishes.

During his eight years in office, Kahl has endured several high-profile scandals. He and his agents have been repeatedly criticized in the press. In 2021, for example, he was accused of underestimating the threat of a Taliban takeover in Afghanistan.

The following year, foreign intelligence agencies criticized the BND for not warning the German government strongly enough about a Russian invasion of Ukraine. In the same year, a BND agent was exposed for passing classified German intelligence data to Russian intelligence services.

For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine, please follow us on X.