What began as an acrimonious international custody battle between a German steakhouse heiress and her former husband has escalated into one of Germany's most extraordinary legal and espionage scandals. Christina Block, heir to the Block House restaurant chain, has been on trial in Hamburg alongside six others over the alleged violent abduction of two of her children from Denmark. The case took an unexpected turn when evidence uncovered during the investigation led directly to the arrest of Germany's former foreign intelligence chief on charges of treason.
Prosecutors allege that Block and a family lawyer arranged for an Israeli security team to forcibly seize her son and daughter, then aged 10 and 13, from the Danish home of their father, Stephan Hensel. During New Year celebrations welcoming 2024, several men reportedly ambushed and beat Hensel before dragging the children into a car, taping their mouths, and smuggling them across the German border. While one operative admitted taking part—claiming he believed he was executing a rescue mission—Block has denied any advance knowledge, arguing that the contractors acted on their own initiative.
The affair took on broader geopolitical significance through allegations surrounding August Hanning, the 80-year-old former head of Germany's foreign intelligence service. Investigators suspect Hanning of coordinating private security personnel for an earlier, unsuccessful attempt to retrieve the children from Denmark in 2022. While Hanning has denied any involvement and is not charged in the Hamburg abduction trial, a police search of his home turned up evidence that he had allegedly purchased some 2,000 classified files from his former chief of staff and passed state secrets to an undisclosed foreign power.
Hanning remains in pre-trial detention charged with treasonous espionage, which his defence lawyer has dismissed as unfounded. Meanwhile, the Hamburg trial against Block and her co-defendants—which has stretched across 15 months of procedural delays—is currently paused for two weeks after Hensel's new wife failed to appear in court as a witness.