At the end of September 2026, Germany’s far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) suffered a major cyberattack on its hosting provider. As a result, more than 421,000 emails spanning 2013–2026 were stolen and later made public. Most of the episodes already examined by journalists relate to 2016–2017. Based on the leaked materials, the Austrian outlet Der Standard, the British newspaper The Times, and the German RND published their own investigations on 21–23 October. AfD leadership predictably called the publications fabrications and stated that the internal party correspondence had been obtained illegally.
Particular interest was drawn to messages from former Bundestag member Hansjörg Müller, who is linked to the pro-Russian business association AfD-Mittelstandsforum. As Der Standard reported on 21 October, the politician wrote to the party leadership that, thanks to his “high-ranking contacts in Russia,” he had allegedly managed to persuade the Russian side to maintain ties not only with former AfD leaders Frauke Petry and Markus Pretzell, but also with other party representatives.
Amid internal party struggles, H. Müller supported the new leadership and proposed that various AfD members jointly use the Russian contacts. Before another trip to Moscow, he also planned to meet in Vienna with the then deputy chairman of Austria’s Freedom Party (FPÖ), Johann Gudenus, in order to convince him to support AfD’s new leadership team. At the end of October 2017, H. Müller visited the Russian capital, where he held a press conference calling for the lifting of sanctions against the Russian Federation and the restoration of bilateral cooperation.
The Russian connections claimed by H. Müller are also visible in his public activities. According to contemporary media reports, in September 2016 he met in Moscow with Vladimir Padalko, vice-president of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and in December of the same year he took part in a meeting of Bavarian AfD representatives with the then Russian consul general in Munich, Sergei Ganzha. In July 2024, H. Müller personally interviewed Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova for the German far-right publication Compact. During the conversation she promoted the Kremlin’s position on the war against Ukraine, criticized Western sanctions, and attacked the policies of European states toward Russia.
Ties with Austrian right-wing forces were also used in AfD’s internal power struggles. In November 2016, Alice Weidel sent the then secretary-general of the far-right Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ), Harald Vilimsky, talking points for his upcoming speech to AfD representatives on the topic “The Rise of the FPÖ and What AfD Can Learn from It.” In particular, she suggested emphasizing the need to support young and competent deputies and criticizing party members who are unable to work as a team and obstruct political activity (referring to the internal party opposition and critics). In this way, A. Weidel apparently sought to use her Austrian ally’s speech to strengthen her own position in AfD and criticize opponents.
The leak also revealed new details about the financing of Alice Weidel’s own election campaign. A joint investigation by NDR, WDR, and Süddeutsche Zeitung, published on 23 October 2026, uncovered her emails from July 2017 in which expected donations for digital campaign advertising were discussed. Four days after one of these messages, funds from Switzerland began arriving in the account of a party branch. In total, €132,000 was transferred in 18 separate payments. Weidel had previously claimed that she only learned about these funds in September 2017. For violations of party financing rules, AfD was later fined €396,000. Criminal proceedings against A. Weidel were closed in 2021 due to lack of evidence.
AfD also discussed bringing in American political consultants. According to The Times of 23 October 2026, the correspondence features German consultant Thor Kunkel, who was considering cooperation with former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon and American digital campaign specialist Vincent Harris. The proposed cost of Vincent Harris’s team’s services was $25,000 per month. The documents also mention contacts with British Eurosceptic political forces and plans for joint events on anti-migration themes.
Certain documents from the leak reveal internal party disputes over the origin of large donations. RND journalists found 2021 correspondence between AfD activist Helmut Birke from Münster and the then treasurer of the North Rhine-Westphalia state branch, Heinz Burghaus, in which they discussed an anonymous donation of €30,000 that arrived in several installments and the need to identify and disclose the donor. In AfD’s 2021 financial report, journalists also found another transfer from Münster of approximately €24,000. One of the correspondents, H. Birke, confirmed receiving a large sum but said he no longer remembered the details. Journalists were unable to determine how the party reflected the discussed funds in its reporting, and no information about their source of origin was made public.
The leak also brought renewed attention to AfD’s double standards regarding foreign financing and political influence. As early as September 2024, AfD MEP Tomasz Fröhlich, in a request to the European Commission, accused the German organization Campact of violating party financing legislation by receiving money from foreign foundations. In particular, the politician stated that in 2022 structures linked to American billionaire George Soros transferred about €269,000 to Campact, while the organization itself financially supported the Greens, the SPD, and other German political forces. T. Fröhlich described this activity as illegal foreign interference in German politics. The October 2026 leak revealed controversial circumstances surrounding AfD’s own receipt of donations through its contacts with Russian officials and negotiations with foreign political consultants. Thus, the party that accused political rivals of using foreign support and demanded checks on its legality has itself found itself at the center of a scandal over the origin of funds and the nature of its international arrangements.
