The Alternative for Germany (AfD) has bolstered its campaign war chest ahead of next month’s federal elections by receiving its largest single donation in party history, totaling €1.5 million.
The donation was made by Winfried Stöcker, a multimillionaire doctor who has previously expressed support for the party.
According to der Spiegel, the figure surpasses the previous record of €266,000, which was made by civil engineer and entrepreneur Hartmut Issmer. The contribution has been officially registered on the Bundestag website, as per German party law, which mandates that donations exceeding €35,000 must be publicly disclosed.
Stöcker gained public attention during the Covid-19 pandemic when he developed his own coronavirus vaccine. which never made it to the market. A former member of the Free Democratic Party (FDP), he first donated to the AfD in 2021, contributing €20,000 at the time.
Despite being openly sympathetic to the AfD, Stöcker has previously stated, “The AfD has many good views and also spreads some bad ones.”
Since the start of the new year, 47 registerable donations have been reported, with the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Free Democratic Party (FDP) receiving the majority. The governing Social Democrats (SPD), has registered just four large donations.
Among the most notable contributions include Vienna-based fintech company BitPanda which donated €500,000 each to the SPD and FDP, while giving the same figure to the CDU and €250,000 to its affiliated Bavaria-based party CSU.
This equaled the largest donation received by the FDP, matching that of Dieter Albert Richard Morszeck, CEO of luxury luggage brand RIMOWA.
London-based financier Johannes Huth pledged €50,000 each to the CDU and FDP.
Following the collapse of the ruling coalition in November and the announcement of early elections, German political parties have received over €14 million in major donations.
While the AfD’s €1.5 million donation is a historic moment for the party, it is not the highest individual donation within the last 12 months.
In March last year, tech entrepreneurs Lotte Salingré and Thomas Stanger donated €4.1 million to the fledgling Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), telling RND at the time their motivation was for a peaceful resolution to global conflicts.
“Peace policy is very important to us. We want conflicts to be resolved without weapons and wars. At the moment, all other parties that we could elect are relying more on arms deliveries to crisis areas than on diplomatic conflict resolution,” Sallingré said.
Stöcker’s donation will be a welcome boost to the often marginalized AfD which, despite lacking a considerable number of high net-worth backers is performing well in the polls and predicted to become the second-largest party in the Bundestag after next month’s vote.
