Updates to our Terms of Use

We are updating our Terms of Use. Please carefully review the updated Terms before proceeding to our website.

Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Crafty Move: German Spies Take Foreign Agents to Oktoberfest

The German government has acknowledged that it picked up the tab when the country's spy agency recently took dozens of foreign agents on a trip to the Munich Oktoberfest.

BERLIN (AP) — The German government has acknowledged that it picked up the tab when the country's spy agency recently took dozens of foreign agents on a trip to the Munich Oktoberfest.

News of the spies' visit to the world-famous beer festival came to light in a government response to an opposition lawmaker's questions and was first reported over the weekend by German weekly Bild am Sonntag.

A spokeswoman for Germany's BND foreign intelligence agency declined Friday to comment on the trip, which reportedly involved more than 100 German spies and their guests, and cost more than $33,460.

It was unclear whether the entire sum went toward beer, which has a reputation for loosening tongues.

Left Party lawmaker Diether Dehm, who had requested the government's response, called the spies' Oktoberfest excursion "cheeky."

Categories / Entertainment

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Loading...