AfD leads in Saxony-Anhalt polls, Berlin cyber attack and IFA gadgets in the ZEIT podcast

Today, September 6th, a new state parliament will be elected in Saxony-Anhalt. In the surveys, the state association of the AfD, which is classified as right-wing extremist by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, leads with over 40 percent. The party was already the strongest force in East Germany in the 2025 federal election. Although Germany was reunified over 35 years ago, there are still economic, social and structural differences between East and West. In the eastern German states, unemployment is higher, incomes are lower and pensions are lower - there is great anger about this. But where is this anger actually rooted? And why are the toughest debates about East Germany taking place among East Germans themselves? ZEIT author Jana Simon talks about this in the podcast.

After a cyber attack on the Berlin administration, the hacker group Rhysida published around 5.8 terabytes of stolen data on the darknet. The Senate had previously refused to pay the demanded ransom of around two million euros in Bitcoin. In addition to internal documents such as contracts and emergency plans, sensitive personal data of employees and citizens of the city was also leaked. The incident temporarily paralyzed the authorities to such an extent that housing benefit could not be paid out to eligible households. It is not yet known exactly how the attackers got into the system. A possible reason could be outdated software. The Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) has now warned of further attacks. In the podcast, David Will from the ZEIT newsroom talks about why the Senate did not respond to the blackmail attempt and what those affected can do now.

And otherwise? These are the most interesting and absurd gadgets at IFA

Moderation and production: Hanna Heim

Collaboration: Lisa Pausch and Maximilian Renzikowski