A serious cyberattack is shaking up the German political party landscape. Unknown hackers have hijacked internal mailboxes of the AfD and published enormous volumes of data with confidential contents on the internet.

The Federal Republic is looking at one of the largest known cyber incidents to date in the political party sphere. Extensive datasets purportedly originating from the AfD’s internal communications were published on a website. According to initial findings, the stolen material comprises an astronomical 421,179 emails with a total volume of 281 gigabytes, according to “Bild”.

Also of interest

The perpetrators did not limit themselves to mere data dumps: the platform published specially created summaries generated from the electronic messages with the help of artificial intelligence. Prominent figures of the federal party appear as senders, including party and parliamentary group leader Alice Weidel, honorary chairman Alexander Gauland, and Bundestag member Leif-Erik Holm. A direct inquiry to the operators of the dubious publication site has so far gone unanswered.

ID cards, invoices, and complete membership lists leaked

The scale of the leak goes far beyond everyday correspondence. According to “Bild”, initial spot checks of the data package confirm that highly confidential documents from parliamentary and organizational day-to-day work were stolen:

• Photo ID documents: A photo of the ID card of deputy Bundestag parliamentary group leader Markus Frohnmaier, as well as photos of other individuals’ ID cards
• Financial records: Internal invoices and detailed bank statements
• Personal documents: References and confidential personnel records
• Party internals: Completed membership applications as well as confidential membership lists of entire AfD district associations in North Rhine-Westphalia

The publication of such datasets touches on the most sensitive personal rights and security interests of the affected party members and staff.

Party confirms attack on external service provider

The party leadership in Berlin was confronted with the massive security breach on Monday. An AfD spokesperson confirmed the incident upon request but downplayed its scope: “In September 2026, there was a hacker attack on a hosting service provider of our party, in which parts of a small number of mailboxes — most of which had not been used for years — were apparently unlawfully copied.”

According to the party, the attack was quickly stopped at the time. All users affected at the time were immediately informed of the data breach. According to official statements, current email accounts of the federal headquarters or the current party leadership were not compromised.

Origin and authenticity of the documents being examined by authorities

Despite the attempts at reassurance, it remains unclear whether all of the now-published data actually stems from this incident and whether the documents are authentic in their entirety. The AfD announced that it would subject the documents circulating online to a thorough examination. The affair is now likely to prompt German security authorities and data protection commissioners to investigate the true scale of the attack.