The German Intelligence Community is the collective of

intelligence agencies An intelligence agency is a government agency responsible for the collection, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law enforcement, national security, military, public safety, and foreign policy objectives. Means of informati ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

. Germany has three federal intelligence services and 16

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * '' Our ...

intelligence services. Because they do not form a single entity and because their responsibilities are split between multiple government ministries and even jurisdictions, this is an informal term for all government agencies and components with intelligence duties, used by commentators, scholars and journalists. * The first federal intelligence agency is the

Federal Intelligence Service The Federal Intelligence Service (German: ; , BND) is the foreign intelligence agency of Germany, directly subordinate to the Chancellor's Office. The BND headquarters is located in central Berlin and is the world's largest intelligence headq ...

(BND), which is responsible for

foreign Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * United S ...

and

strategic intelligence Strategic intelligence (STRATINT) pertains to the collection, processing, analysis, and dissemination of intelligence that is required for forming policy and military plans at the national and international level. Much of the information needed for ...

. Additionally, they support the

German Armed Forces The ''Bundeswehr'' (, meaning literally: ''Federal Defence'') is the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. The ''Bundeswehr'' is divided into a military part (armed forces or ''Streitkräfte'') and a civil part, the military part con ...

with

military intelligence Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist commanders in their decisions. This aim is achieved by providing an assessment of data from ...

. Their primary methods of collection are

human intelligence Human intelligence is the intellectual capability of humans, which is marked by complex cognitive feats and high levels of motivation and self-awareness. High intelligence is associated with better outcomes in life. Through intelligence, humans ...

signals intelligence Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is intelligence-gathering by interception of '' signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly used in communication ...

and

geospatial intelligence In the United States, geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) is intelligence about the human activity on earth derived from the exploitation and analysis of imagery, signals, or signatures with geospatial information. GEOINT describes, assesses, and vis ...

. This is a sharp break with their American and British counterparts, where an intelligence agency mostly specializes on one of these collection methods. The BND is directly subordinated to the

German Chancellery The German Chancellery (german: Bundeskanzleramt, , more faithfully translated as ''Federal Chancellery'' or ''Office of the Federal Chancellor'') is an agency serving the executive office of the chancellor of Germany, the head of the federal gov ...

, Directorate-General 7. * The second federal intelligence agency is the

Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (german: Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz or BfV, often ''Bundesverfassungsschutz'') is Germany's federal domestic intelligence agency. Together with the Landesämter für Verfassungs ...

(BfV). It is a domestic intelligence agency and tasked with detecting threats to the German state in the form of

religious extremism Religious fanaticism, or religious extremism, is a pejorative designation used to indicate uncritical zeal or obsessive enthusiasm which is related to one's own, or one's group's, devotion to a religion – a form of human fanaticism which co ...

political extremism Extremism is "the quality or state of being extreme" or "the advocacy of extreme measures or views". The term is primarily used in a politics, political or religion, religious sense to refer to an ideology that is considered (by the speaker or b ...

and

organized crime Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally tho ...

. Additionally, it is the primary

counterintelligence Counterintelligence is an activity aimed at protecting an agency's intelligence program from an opposition's intelligence service. It includes gathering information and conducting activities to prevent espionage, sabotage, assassinations or o ...

agency of Germany, working to secure

classified information Classified information is material that a government body deems to be sensitive information that must be protected. Access is restricted by law or regulation to particular groups of people with the necessary security clearance and need to k ...

, government facilities and private businesses against

espionage Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information ( intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tang ...

sabotage Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. One who engages in sabotage is a ''saboteur''. Saboteurs typically try to conceal their identiti ...

and

cyber attacks A cyberattack is any offensive maneuver that targets computer information systems, computer networks, infrastructures, or personal computer devices. An attacker is a person or process that attempts to access data, functions, or other restricted ...

. The BfV is subordinated to the Federal Ministry of the Interior. Besides the BfV, every German state has its own State Office for the Protection of the Constitution (''Landesverfassungsschutzämter''), which is not subordinated to any federal ministry or agency. * The third federal intelligence agency is the Military Counterintelligence Service (MAD). Its duties are much the same as those of the BfV, except limited to the

. They also analyze tactical intelligence relevant to deployed German troops. As such, they fall within the jurisdiction of the Federal Ministry of Defense. However, they do not conduct traditional

, which is done by other military branches, as well as the BND. * Other state agencies that use intelligence techniques or collect data, such as the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), the German Customs Investigation Bureau (ZKA), or the

Federal Office for Information Security The Federal Office for Information Security (german: Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik, abbreviated as BSI) is the German upper-level federal agency in charge of managing computer and communication security for the German go ...

(BSI) are not officially regarded as member of the Intelligence Community, although they do participate in coordinative institutions, such as the Joint Centre for Counterterrorism and -extremism (GETZ). The activities of the three federal intelligence agencies are coordinated out of the

by the Commissioner for the Federal Intelligence Services and Directorate-General 7. Furthermore, they are subject to parliamentary oversight through the Parliamentary Oversight Panel (PKGr). In cases where the agencies want to surveil electronic communications, they have to get permission by the G10-Commission, which acts much like the

FISA Court The United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), also called the FISA Court, is a U.S. federal court established under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) to oversee requests for surveillance warrants ag ...

. The traditional primary focus of the German Intelligence Community, originally the West German Intelligence Community, was the threat posed by the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

and its satellite states. The German Intelligence Community has been closely aligned with the

United States Intelligence Community United may refer to: Places * United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community Arts and entertainment Films * United (2003 film), ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film * United (2011 film) ...

, especially the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

, since the start of the Cold War.German Intelligence Community in ''Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence, and Security'', 2004

References

{{Germany-poli-stub de:Nachrichtendienste des Bundes