Hans-Georg Maaßen

Hans-Georg Maaßen (born 24 November 1962) is a German civil servant and lawyer. From 1 August 2012 to 8 November 2018, he served as the President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany's domestic security agency and one of three agencies in the German Intelligence Community. He was removed from his Federal role in 2018 after controversial comments exonerating far right violence, and feeding unpublished intelligence reports to the AfD. He would subsequently claim he was the victim of a far left conspiracy, but admit in 2025 that characterizations of the AfD as a far-right extremist organization were accurate.

In 2021 Maaßen was selected as a candidate of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He is one of the founders and, since January 2023 also president, of the Values Union, a German registered association, converted in 2024 to a political party, that consists mostly of more conservative members of the CDU.

Life and career

Maaßen was born on 24 November 1962 in Mönchengladbach. He joined the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) at age 16. He studied Law, writing a PhD thesis on the legal status of asylum seekers in International Law.

In 1991, he began working at Germany's Interior Ministry. On 18 July 2012, Maaßen was appointed by the Cabinet of Germany to take over from Heinz Fromm as President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution. Several months later, he was sworn in to this post. On 18 September 2018, an agreement was made to promote Maaßen to a role within the Interior Ministry and relieve him of his previous duties once a successor for his post has been agreed on. However, after various statements critical of the German government, he was instead placed in "early retirement" on 8 November 2018.