The James Bond episode Good kisses from Russia should it have been called Good kisses from Berlin ? In recent weeks, espionage cases have proliferated across the Rhine. On Monday, a former German army officer, arrested in August 2023, admitted to having spied for the Kremlin. Last Tuesday, a collaborator of a German far-right party in the European Parliament was arrested on suspicion of being a Chinese spy. In mid-April, Berlin allegedly got its hands on two Russian spies.
Worse still, in March Russia broadcast on social networks the audio recording of a videoconference between high-ranking German officers, who discussed arms deliveries to Ukraine. Other espionage cases have come to light in other European countries, such as the United Kingdom. But of Jason Bourne has OSS 117all the spies in the world seem to have agreed to meet in Germany.
A historic “nest of spies”
“This country occupies a particularly advantageous geographical position, it is a crossroads between East and West. In the history of espionage, Germany and Central Europe more generally have always constituted a nest of spies,” reacts Alain Rodier, former senior officer of the DGSE (Directorate General of French Foreign Intelligence) and research director at the French Intelligence Research Center (CF2R).
By being in Germany, spies can not only monitor the territory but also focus on the European Union and even some of the most influential strongholds in the global economy. Like the European Central Bank which is located in Frankfurt. “Between its political influence and its geographical position, Germany interests all the intelligence services on the planet,” says Alain Rodier. Because if the latest arrests concern agents of China or Russia, they are not the only ones eyeing Berlin.
The big ears of Westerners
“It’s an opaque world where anything goes. China and Russia are spying but it’s not as if Westerners aren’t active too! », Points out Yves Boyer, former deputy director of the Foundation for Strategic Research (FRS). “France has a listening center in Mayotte which manages the entire Indian Ocean basin,” recalls the specialist in defense issues.
But also several others in mainland France or in Kourou, in Guyana, ideally placed to monitor the Americans. Because, when it comes to intelligence, friendships fade in favor of everyone’s interests. “Everyone is spying. And above all we must not believe that the 17 American intelligence services are twiddling their thumbs and that, as the Germans are theoretically their allies, they are not in the game,” slips Alain Rodier. This is evidenced by the revelations of American wiretapping of Angela Merkel in 2013 and then of French presidents Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande in 2015.
The ghost of the Gestapo
“It is possible that the increase in the number of espionage cases does not come directly from an increase in intelligence activity in Germany but rather from an improvement in counter-espionage services,” says Alain Rodier.
The research director at CF2R recalls that the Germans had an extremely effective intelligence apparatus with the Gestapo. “But the Germans were traumatized, and that is completely natural, so counter-espionage was then greatly restricted by political power,” he explains.
Well-polished communication
Yves Boyer puts forward a different hypothesis. “From time to time, there is an affair but, often, we don’t talk about it. It is eminently politico-strategic to communicate on these matters, he notes. If we talk, it’s because there are political interests behind it. » “Communication is very close in the field of intelligence, they only want to talk when they see an interest in it,” agrees Alain Rodier. The former senior officer of the French services adds that “the Germans [ont] the reputation for extremely controlled communication: on certain matters, the media are well supplied, on others, there is radio silence.”
While the United States threatens to ban the Chinese social network TikTok and the European Union has launched an investigation against it, “pointing the finger at Chinese espionage could prepare German public opinion for a ban on the social network », theorizes Yves Boyer. And, in all cases, these cases allow us to point the finger at those who are categorized as enemies. But the intentions of the German power – if it has any – remain nebulous. Because in this opaque world, as Yves Boyer reminds us, “those who really know say nothing”…