Anonymous hackers leak alleged email archive with hundreds of thousands of messages from Alternative for Germany party

Anonymous hackers have leaked an alleged email archive containing hundreds of thousands of messages from the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, according to the International Cyber Digest (ICD). The site does not publish the full emails, but instead provides short summaries using specialized software. The content is categorized by severity levels, ranging from low to critical. Critical content is defined as material related to serious harm, crimes, or violence.

The hackers claim they accessed the emails through one of the party’s websites, whose software had not been updated. Their goal was to expose the AfD's "degeneracy and hypocrisy," according to the ICD. The dataset includes the mailbox of former party leader Alexander Gauland, who served as the honorary chairman of the AfD parliamentary group in the Bundestag until September 12, 2026. The most recent message from Gauland is dated on that day.

According to recent polls, the AfD is the most popular party in Germany, with a rating of 28%. The CDU, the party of Chancellor Friedrich Merz, follows with 19%. In early September, the AfD won first place in the state election in Saxony-Anhalt, enabling them to form a state-level government for the first time in their history. The Eastern Europe Center in Berlin, according to Dmitri Stratievski, director, identifies the AfD branch in Saxony-Anhalt as one of the most far-right in the country.

The leaked emails were analyzed by the ICD, which categorizes the content based on its severity levels and the nature of the messages. The critical level is reserved for material that involves serious harm, crimes, or violence. The creators of the site explain that their service is an index to the archive, while the original messages remain within the archive itself. By publishing each email on a separate page, the hackers aim to prevent the entire archive of private correspondence from being made public.