Jungle World author and AfD member: Right-wing author, left-wing media

More than 400,000 emails from the AfD's internal communication, a total of around 280 gigabytes of data: The data in the AfD leaks distributed by an anonymous group of hackers provides numerous insights into internal disputes, personnel connections and the history of the party. But the data leaks and the accompanying summaries with artificial intelligence are only one thing. Now it’s up to journalists and data analysts to examine this data and create stories from it.

One story concerns Thomas K. Gugler. According to the emails in the leaks, Gugler is a long-time AfD member and at the same time writes articles for the left-wing newspaper Jungle World. Regularly since 2019, according to the newspaper's website. Many of his contributions deal with Pakistan. Media interviewed him in his position as a religious scholar at the Goethe University in Frankfurt with a focus on Islam. The taz 2022, among others, quoted him in this role.

The possible AfD membership was not yet publicly known. The leaked emails show that Gugler was accepted into the party in 2017. He is also said to have applied for two different speaker positions at the AfD office in North Rhine-Westphalia in 2018 and 2022. The Busters research collective sees the leaks as evidence of a commitment that could go beyond mere party membership.

When asked by the taz about the AfD membership of one of its authors, the Jungle World explained: “We didn’t know anything about his membership until now.” At the same time, the newspaper referred to its fundamental stance on dealing with authors who belong to the AfD or are close to the party: “Basically, if it turns out that an author is an AfD member or is close to the party, we will end the collaboration.”

Evidence of political proximity can also be found in Gugler's public activities on social media. On Facebook, in addition to his own texts, which have appeared mainly in Jungle World, but also in other media such as the scientific magazine Anthropos, he shares, among others, an article by Julian Reichelt, now editor-in-chief of the right-wing inflammatory portal Nius, and the Berlin AfD MP Julian Adrat.

In the comments to one of his most recent posts, Gugler also refers to an article from the newly founded magazine Glut. Its founders previously left the right-wing platform Nius. The right-wing newspaper Junge Freiheit describes the new online medium as a kind of “correction from the right”.

How reliable the evidence from the AfD leaks is is a central question. There are several indications that at least parts of the data are authentic. The taz found approximately matching press inquiries in the data. Spiegel also reported that parts of the leak could be confirmed.

Everyone can search the database themselves. On the website goebbelmail.com, for example, emails are presented in the form of a searchable inbox.