Gerhard Schindler

He completed his Abitur in 1972[1] and spent his military service in a Paratrooper division of the Bundeswehr, the German armed forces.

Schindler made headlines in May 2012 when he used his personal agency airplane (a Dassault Falcon 900) to transport a rug weighing 30 kilograms (66 lb) from Afghanistan back to Germany for free as a "personal favor" for Dirk Niebel, the Federal Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development.

Niebel did not make a customs declaration or payment of duty until after the issue was investigated by Der Spiegel, a German weekly news magazine.

[10] In July 2013, Schindler was pressed for answers in the wake of the Global surveillance disclosures when it was reported that the German Army was using PRISM to support its operations in Afghanistan as early as 2011.

[12] Beginning on 10 August 2013, German media reported that under Schindler's direction, the BND was passing mobile phone data to the United States that was used in the U.S.'s targeted killing program.