For over 50 years, Block House has been a well-known chain of restaurants in Germany, offering family-friendly meals that include its signature burgers and steak dishes.
Recently, however, the Hamburg-based company has drawn attention for a different reason: a prolonged and bitter custody dispute involving Christina Block, the business heiress, and her former spouse concerning their two youngest children.
The case involves accusations against several individuals, including former Israeli intelligence operatives and a former leader of Germany’s domestic security agency.
The dispute, which has largely unfolded in legal settings and—unusually for Germany’s strict privacy laws—in the media, has now reached a courtroom in Hamburg.
Amid significant public interest, Block is on trial, facing charges of aggravated child abduction, serious assault, and unlawful confinement. The central allegation is that she hired a security firm to forcibly take her children across borders. If found guilty, she could face up to a decade in prison.
Also on trial is Gerhard Delling, a well-known former sports broadcaster and Block’s partner since 2021. He is accused of assisting in the alleged abduction.
Due to the nature of the defendants, which includes former alleged intelligence officers, the trial is being held in a high-security courtroom typically used for terrorism cases.
According to prosecutors, Block is said to have arranged for a group to attack her ex-husband, Stephan Hensel, and their two youngest children—then aged 10 and 13—while they were watching fireworks at Hensel’s home in southern Denmark near the German border on New Year's Eve 2023-24.
The assailants allegedly knocked Hensel down before forcibly taking the children into a nearby forest and across a stream into a waiting vehicle. The children were reportedly gagged, and one was restrained, with threats made against their lives.
Authorities in Denmark tracked the suspects with police dogs after Hensel activated an alert device attached to his son.
The children were taken to a farmhouse in southern Germany and held there until Block retrieved them on January 2, 2024, bringing them to her home in Hamburg. They were later returned to Danish authorities.
Both Block and Delling—who is accused of organizing the handover—deny the allegations.
Alleged participants in the incident include August Hanning, a former head of Germany’s intelligence service, the BND.
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