2024-09-19 12:48:26
Almost 5.1 million euros for Sahra Wagenknecht’s party: The largest donation ever from a private individual was a mystery – until now. t-online has found out where the money came from.
A huge windfall for Sahra Wagenknecht has much more to do with Ed Sheeran and the Eurovision Song Contest than with Vladimir Putin or the SED. This is shown by new research by t-online, which traced the origin of money that a married couple from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania put into the young BSW party.
In focus: Thomas Stanger and his wife Lotte Salingré, who together donated more than five million euros to the BSW.
The origin of the money remained unknown for a long time, which led to speculation. This was also fueled by the fact that Stanger had initially only given vague information. The search for the origin of Wagenknecht’s millions now shows that Stanger’s wealth leads into show business, to a globally successful company that has nothing to do with politics – and once started in a garage: the company MA Lightning Technology GmbH from Waldbüttelbrunn in Franconia.
t-online met Thomas Stanger and Lotte Salingré in a café in Hamburg. During the conversation, he confirmed the information and revealed what he had not previously said. At the same time, t-online’s research at least partially exonerates the BSW from allegations that it was paid by Russia.
At the meeting, the two appear very reserved and cautious, almost skeptical. They don’t want to be photographed, but they do want to talk. The research by t-online and the hustle and bustle of the past few weeks have prompted them to make a public statement about the large transfer that has kept politicians busy in recent weeks.
The 5.1 million euro donation is the largest from an individual to a party in the past 20 years.
In many political camps, people suspected that the money was the missing SED millions or simply money that came indirectly from Vladimir Putin. This was recently stated by Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck and the chairman of the CDU workers’ wing, Dennis Radtke. Radtke specifically mentioned donations that the association behind the alliance had received: 1.6 million euros to the BSW support association, of which it is not clear who donated them.
Even the much higher amount – the 5.1 million euros that the BSW received from Stanger and Salingré – has recently raised increasing doubts. Does the money come from Russia? Is the Kremlin indirectly financing the new party, which regularly expresses understanding for Russia’s war of aggression? From missing SED assets? Both theories have been read more frequently recently.
- t-online had exclusively reported on the second donation of over 4 million euros
“What nonsense,” says Lotte Salingré, half laughing, half shaking her head. “We earned the money.” And she immediately adds: “He earned the money” – and points to her husband. Thomas Stanger is tall, 67 years old and a successful entrepreneur. After t-online confronted the couple with the results of their research, they spoke for the first time about where their wealth came from.
They don’t flaunt their wealth. His white shirt is slightly wrinkled, she wears a simple dark top and a scarf. They don’t live in great luxury, says Salingré. They do have a house on the Baltic Sea, “but we don’t need a Ferrari.” All this attention now? “We didn’t want it!” explains Stanger. They knew that their donation would be published on the Bundestag administration’s website. But they “didn’t expect the huge interest and the insinuations in this form.”
Several times in recent weeks, other parties have taken advantage of Stanger and Salingré’s largely public reticence. Kevin Kühnert, General Secretary of the SPD, asked the provocative question in an Instagram video: “Who are these donors? What political expectations do they have of them?” And he went further, speaking in connection with the BSW of a “papier-mâché party” that could have been built up by despots.