German tycoon fuels controversy with record AfD donation
German entrepreneur Winfried Stoecker donated 1.5 million euros (£1.3 million) to the far-right populist party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), marking the largest donation in the party's history. Stoecker gained notoriety during the coronavirus pandemic for conducting illegal vaccination campaigns.
Seventy-seven-year-old Winfried Stoecker, founder of the company Euroimmun and owner of the airport in Lübeck, donated 1.5 million euros to the AfD. According to RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (RND), this is the largest single donation in the party's history. Stoecker, who had previously supported the AfD with smaller contributions, publicly expresses his support for the party.
Stoecker sold his company to the American corporation PerkinElmer for 1.2 billion euros (£1 billion) in 2017. Since then, he has been active in matters related to the AfD, and in November 2024, he was a guest of the party at a symposium in the Bundestag.
Controversies surrounding Stoecker
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Stoecker became known for developing his own vaccine, which was not approved. In 2021, he conducted an illegal vaccination campaign, injecting it into 50 to 100 people at his airport. For this act, he was fined 250,000 euros (£215,000) by a court in Lübeck, but he appealed the verdict.
The donation reached the AfD a month before the Bundestag elections. The party is currently in second place in the polls, trailing only the CDU/CSU. Meanwhile, a wave of protests against right-wing extremism is rising in Germany.
Citizen movements, such as demokrateam.org, organise demonstrations and vigils across the country, calling for the defence of democracy. In Berlin, a "sea of lights" is planned at the Brandenburg Gate, and a protest was held in Karlsruhe against the "deportation tickets" distributed by the AfD aimed at "illegal immigrants."
Actions like the "deportation tickets" distributed by the AfD are outraging many citizens. The tickets display the departure date as Bundestag election day, with the route marked as "From: Germany – To: Safe Country of Origin." Last weekend, 3,500 people protested in Karlsruhe against this provocative AfD election campaign.
