Alternative for Germany (AfD) positions itself as a political force that opposes the current political establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany, state bureaucracy, and allegedly excessive control by intelligence services. It also promises to fundamentally change both the domestic and foreign policy agenda if it comes to power. The far-right party has repeatedly compared the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) to the Stasi — the Ministry for State Security of the GDR, whose goal was total control over society through covert surveillance using a large network of informants and the persecution of opposition-minded and critical Germans.
Against this backdrop, the presence within AfD itself of dozens of people who previously served in the Stasi or confidentially collaborated with it looks particularly hypocritical. The largest number of individuals linked to the former secret service has been identified among members of state parliaments and the Bundestag, as well as in AfD’s regional party structures. For the far-right party, such personnel proved to be a valuable resource: they have specialized training, understand conspiracy methods, possess skills in grassroots organizational work, and — most importantly — share a deep anti-Western and pro-Russian revanchism that AfD seeks to convert into electoral capital.
According to the German outlet Correctiv, which cited data from official parliamentary commission investigations, as of August 2024 there were at least 34 former full-time Stasi employees among AfD members. The number of former informants in the party’s ranks may be significantly higher and remain unknown, since a substantial portion of the secret service’s archives were destroyed and informants used pseudonyms during their confidential collaboration.
The first publications and exposés on this topic appeared much earlier. In July 2020, public broadcaster MDR published materials from the “Gauck Archive,” according to which AfD state parliament member Dieter Laudenbach had worked for the Stasi during the GDR era under the operational pseudonym “Klaus.” It was established that he informed his colleagues and acquaintances. His exposure resonated particularly strongly because AfD in Thuringia was campaigning under the slogan “stop the coups of 1989,” positioning itself as “fighters against totalitarianism.” According to the outlet, the party ignored this fact and kept Laudenbach in its ranks.
An investigation by the journalistic center Correctiv, published in August 2024, established that AfD’s ranks include not only former informants but also former career employees and officers of the GDR Ministry for State Security. Among them are sitting Bundestag member from AfD Enrico Komning and Brandenburg state parliament member Peter Drenske, both of whom served in the elite guard regiment “Feliks Dzierzynski” (Wachregiment Feliks Dzierzynski). This unit was directly subordinated to the Ministry for State Security (Stasi) and was considered the military wing of the secret service, tasked with protecting sensitive facilities and suppressing unrest. According to their files, both men demonstrated loyalty to communist ideology and later repeatedly justified the contemporary policies of the Kremlin.
A similar case occurred in Brandenburg, where local AfD politician Jean-René Adam was forced to resign in June 2026 under pressure from the public and journalists after German media published details of his Stasi file. According to reports in Der Tagesspiegel and Die Welt, he operated as a covert informant under the pseudonym “Hubert” and collected compromising material on dissidents in the GDR. In particular, he passed on information about plans by Germans to flee from Soviet-controlled territory and gathered data on the private lives of individuals of interest to the Stasi.
Official investigations by parliamentary commissions throughout 2026 confirmed that the presence of former GDR secret service personnel in AfD’s ranks is a systemic phenomenon. A report by the Commission for Investigating the Past of Members of the Brandenburg State Parliament in May–June 2026 exposed four representatives of the AfD faction who had either served in the Stasi’s special regiment or acted as unofficial informants. These included the already mentioned Jean-René Adam and Peter Drenske, as well as Falk Janke and Roman Kuffert.
In summer 2026, German broadcaster MDR reported that the AfD faction in the Thuringian parliament obstructed the formation and work of a commission tasked with checking deputies for collaboration with the Stasi. The party explained this by citing distrust of the methods used by the previous commission and declared its conclusions “politically biased,” stating that service in the GDR-era secret service does not constitute an obstacle to performing parliamentary or other duties. Unlike traditional German parties (CDU or SPD), which without discussion expel individuals with confirmed staff or agent pasts in the Stasi, AfD demonstrates complete loyalty and tolerance toward such persons.
The systemic recruitment by Alternative for Germany of former career Stasi employees and informants indicates that the party has become the main refuge for those nostalgic for the totalitarian past. The main threat to Germany lies in the fact that these figures have retained ideological loyalty to Russia, since the Stasi historically acted as a direct branch and instrument of the Soviet KGB. The normalization of the presence of exposed informants and former employees of this secret service within the party — and potentially even in the government offices of a future German cabinet — risks devaluing the achievements of German lustration.
For this reason, AfD’s potential rise to power may prove to be not an “alternative,” but a profound civilizational regression and a renaissance of totalitarianism and the ideological practices of the past. It threatens not only the dismantling of internal freedoms in Germany, but also the subordination of its foreign policy to Kremlin interests through proven and established agent channels and connections.