List of intelligence agencies of Germany
The following is a list of intelligence agencies of Germany.
Currently active
- Federal Intelligence Service : foreign and military intelligence
- Military Counterintelligence Service : counterintelligence within the Bundeswehr and the Federal [Ministry of Defence (Germany)|Federal Ministry of Defence].
- Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution : national domestic intelligence
- *State Offices for the Protection of the Constitution : domestic intelligence for the 16 subnational states
- Strategic Reconnaissance Command : central functional command for military intelligence, military signals intelligence and geospatial intelligence, part of Cyber and Information Domain Service. Subordinate units include Centre for Cyber Operations and Centre for Operational Communication.
- Central Office for Information Technology in the Security Sector : cryptanalysis and digital surveillance. Mainly works as a support and research agency for law enforcement and BfV.
- Federal Office for Information Security : information security and cyber security.
- Federal Criminal Police Office : criminal and national security intelligence. Not actually an intelligence agency, but resembles one in a few aspects.
- State Criminal Police Offices : State police services have their own police units responsible for State Protection. Further responsibilities for state protection may be distributed to regional police entities within the states.
- Federal Police : Federal uniformed police service with responsibility for border, aviation and railway security; one of its legal responsibilities is the support of the BfV on the field of radio technology, including signals intelligence to identify foreign intelligence services communication within Germany.
- Customs Investigation Bureau : investigation and analysis of certain financial crimes, cases of arms proliferation and drug trafficking. Central organizational entity for the regional branches of federal customs investigation service.
- Financial Intelligence Unit : Central agency for the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing. Formerly an entity of the BKA and set up in 2017 as a subdirectorate of the ZKA until becoming a division of the General Customs Directorate in 2021.
Former agencies
Prussia/German Empire- Prussian Secret Police : Precursor of the Gestapo between 1851 and 1933.
- Naval Intelligence Service : Intelligence department of the Imperial German Navy.
- Department IIIb : Military intelligence of the German General Staff of Imperial Germany.
- Foreign Armies East. Army intelligence analysis service of Nazi Germany.
- Defense : Army intelligence gathering service of Nazi Germany.
- Observation Service : Naval intelligence service of Nazi Germany.
- Secret State Police : Secret police of Nazi Germany and German-occupied Europe.
- Secret Field Police : Secret military police of the Wehrmacht.
- Security Service : Intelligence agency of the SS and the Nazi Party. See also: Reich Security Main Office
- Gehlen Organization : Precursor to the Bundesnachrichtendienst.
- Office/Center for Intelligence of the Federal Armed Forces : Military intelligence analysis organization of the Bundeswehr. The majority of the tasks of ZNBw was taken over by the Bundesnachrichtendienst after an agreement between the Federal Ministry of Defence and the Federal Chancellery.
- Ministry for State Security : State Security Service of the German Democratic Republic.
- Main Directorate for Reconnaissance : Foreign Intelligence Service of the German Democratic Republic.
- Military Intelligence of the National People's Army : Military Intelligence Service of the German Democratic Republic.