New BND President from Ulm: Martin Jäger follows Bruno Kahl's footsteps!

New BND President from Ulm: Martin Jäger follows Bruno Kahl's footsteps!

Berlin, Deutschland - On June 11, 2025, it was announced that Martin Jäger from Ulm should become the designated new president of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND). The 60-year-old diplomatia expert brings extensive experience from different positions, including his current role as a German ambassador in Kyjiw. Reports from SWR , the change is officially not yet confirmed by the Federal Government, but media reports indicate that the previous BND-President Bruno Kahl switched to the Vatican as an ambassador.

Martin Jäger has a multifaceted career. Previously, he was ambassador in Kabul from 2013 to 2014 and then worked as a spokesman for the finance ministry under Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU) for two years. From 2016 to 2018, he served as State Secretary in the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Interior. After that, he was active in federal politics as State Secretary in the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and as an ambassador in Iraq. Hunter has been used in Ukraine since 2023.

restructuring at the BND

The change at the head of the BND is part of a reorganization of the secret service, which was indicated after the change of government under Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU). Merz brought Philipp Wolff to the Chancellery as a secret service inspector, which further illustrates the restructuring in the BND. The BND itself is the German home service, founded on April 1, 1956 and successor to the organization. The BND's headquarters have been in Berlin since 2019 and the service has around 6,500 people at a budget of around one billion euros, as described by the Wikipedia

The BND is subject to the control of the federal intelligence services, the specialist supervision is managed by Department 7 in the Federal Chancellery. One of the essential tasks of the BND is to collect and evaluate information from external and security-political importance, with military enlightenment of foreign states also one of the tasks. Information is collected from both open sources and through technical information.

outlook and challenges

The appointment of Martin Jäger could bring new impulses for the BND, especially in view of the changing security policy situation in Europe. The BND has recently focused its focus in monitoring international terrorism and organized crime and is currently designing projects to expand its IT communication surveillance. Another major project is the satellite system for electro-optical information with a financial volume of 400 million euros.

Jäger's extensive diplomatic experiences could prove to be valuable, while the BND must continue to cope with challenges in global information procurement and international cooperation. The change at the top could thus mean a strategic new beginning for German education, which will be observed by the Federal Government in the coming months.