Personnel | Martin Jäger: Straight from Hell

It may not be surprising that strange characters lurk in secret services. Yet the CV of the new BND chief, Martin Jäger, reads as if he came straight from hell. Yet Jäger, born in Baden-Württemberg in 1964, had a fairly normal beginning: after graduating from high school, he joined the Bundeswehr, then trained as a photographer, worked as a freelance journalist, and studied ethnology, political science, and philosophy.

Since joining the CDU in 1994, however, Jäger has demonstrated a strong affinity for power. The Ulm native embarked on a diplomatic career and proved himself a smooth technocrat. Despite his CDU membership, he first worked for an FDP foreign minister, then, from 1998, for the SPD-led Federal Chancellery, where he wrote speeches on European policy. After a brief stint at the German embassy in Prague, Jäger served current Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Jäger evidently looks back with satisfaction on his achievements back then: "With Agenda 2010, we made lasting changes," the daily newspaper "Welt" quoted him as saying a few years ago.

With the end of Merkel's first cabinet looming, Jäger turned to the big business in 2008 and became chief lobbyist – naturally, for the Daimler car company. After five handsomely paid years, he moved on to the Hindu Kush: At Guido Westerwelle's suggestion, Jäger became ambassador to Kabul, where, constantly surrounded by GSG-9 members, he wanted to help with nation-building.

Since the project was notoriously unsuccessful, Jäger soon moved on again. This time, he worked for Europe's most hated finance minister: Wolfgang Schäuble. Commissioned by the banks, Jäger undertook the mission of dismantling the left-wing government in Greece and subjecting the rebellious population to austerity dictates. When the party newspaper of the Greek Left published a cartoon depicting Schäuble with the phrase "We insist on making soap from your fat," Jäger remained composed. "This drawing is disgusting," he declared succinctly.

In 2016, Jäger, who, according to Der Spiegel, was part of Schäuble's inner circle of power, was seconded to the struggling Southwest CDU, where he developed migration policy guidelines for Interior Minister Thomas Strobl and drafted a widely acclaimed position paper on combating immigration. Criticized for its AfD-friendly rhetoric, Jäger responded unfazed: "Just a few months ago, we were still receiving criticism for tightening detention pending deportation. Now everyone wants that."

Because the CDU/CSU remained weak in Baden-Württemberg, Jäger moved again in March 2018—this time to the CSU-led Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. He worked there for three years, and since then, he has primarily traveled to crisis regions: first as ambassador to Iraq, and since summer 2023 to Ukraine. In Kyiv, Jäger advocated for writing only to Kyiv, hugged Ukrainian combat troops, and—rather uncharacteristically for a diplomat—maintained his X-account daily.

So now Jäger is becoming head of the foreign intelligence service. If one wanted to turn his biography into a novel, one would probably be accused of trying to mix too many topics. Or, as CDU foreign policy expert Roderich Kiesewetter put it this week: "Due to his work in the areas of internal security, economics, and financial security, he is a very good fit as the future president (of the BND)."

Internal security, economy and securing investments – a remarkable job description for the German foreign intelligence service.