Germany’s Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) said stolen party data surfaced online after a September breach of its hosting provider, as Bild reported seeing personal records in the material.
In an Oct. 20 statement, the far-right party said attackers copied a small number of mailboxes but took a large amount of data. It said it had notified the account holders and its data protection officer, and reported both the breach and the online release to security authorities.
Bild reported that a website claimed to hold 421,179 emails totaling 281 gigabytes. The AfD has not confirmed that tally or authenticated the files. During a limited examination, Bild said it found images of identity documents, bank statements, membership applications and local membership lists.
ARD reported that the site’s index did not display the messages themselves. Party sources told ARD that the summaries shown there appeared to be AI-generated. The AfD said the summaries emphasized keywords without their context.
An AfD spokesperson previously told Bild that most affected mailboxes had gone unused for years and that the party’s current federal association email accounts were unaffected.
The AfD won 20.8% of second votes and 152 Bundestag seats in Germany’s 2025 federal election, according to final results from the Federal Returning Officer. The party is still examining the online material and has announced no timetable for completing its review.
