Germany’s Former Spy Chief Now Being Monitored as Extremist

Many of his statements deal with his criticism of illegal immigrant policies in Germany.

Hans-Georg Maassen, former head of the Germany domestic intelligence service, in Benshausen, Germany, on Sept. 5, 2021. Photo by Jens Schluter/AFP

Germany’s domestic intelligence agency has been surveilling its former chief, who is now an opposition politician, in an echo that reminds some of former communist East Germany.

Hans-Georg Maassen says that the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV)—Germany’s equivalent of the FBI—has compiled extensive records on him going back several years.