Soup 396, September 4, 2026
| Soup | 396 |
|---|---|
| Permalink | Permalink |
| Date | 2026-09-04 |
| Twitter/X | Read |
| Twitter/X Quotes | View |
| Twitter/X Latest Comments | View |
| Twitter/X Thread | Thread |
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| Posts | 21 |
| Soup type | Vatnik profile |
|---|---|
| Country of origin | Germany, Romania |
| In other languages |
Hans-Thomas Tillschneider
In today’s Vatnik Soup, we introduce Hans-Thomas Tillschneider @P_Plattform, a German AfD politician, Islamic-studies scholar & Putinversteher.
He’s best known for playing dumb over his Russian Army mug & for shaping the AfD program ahead of Sunday’s Sachsen-Anhalt election.1/21
He’s best known for playing dumb over his Russian Army mug & for shaping the AfD program ahead of Sunday’s Sachsen-Anhalt election.1/21
Russian Army and Putin mugs, Putin portrait, Spasskaya Tower souvenir, vodka Kalashnikovs…
If you asked your AI, “Draw me a caricatural vatnik’s office, as ridiculous as possible”, you’d probably get this.
Except this is Tillschneider’s real political office.
If you asked your AI, “Draw me a caricatural vatnik’s office, as ridiculous as possible”, you’d probably get this.
Except this is Tillschneider’s real political office.
When journalist Paul Ronzheimer @ronzheimer asked him where the Russian Army mug came from, Tillschneider said it was given to him in Berlin. Then he tried to stop the video from being published. Later, he changed his story: a souvenir from Russia.
Very normal mug behavior.
Very normal mug behavior.
But Tillschneider is no random Internet troll. Born in Timișoara, Romania, in 1978, he studied Islamic studies, German literature and philosophy, including in Syria. He earned a PhD, habilitated, worked at France’s CNRS and taught at the University of Bayreuth.
Politically, Tillschneider joined the FDP in 1996, then the AfD in 2013.
His academic specialty soon became politically useful: he helped shape the AfD’s hardline position that “Islam does not belong in Germany” and fought a proposal to support liberal reform within Islam.
His academic specialty soon became politically useful: he helped shape the AfD’s hardline position that “Islam does not belong in Germany” and fought a proposal to support liberal reform within Islam.
Founded in 2013 as a eurosceptic party, the AfD gradually became more and more nationalist, anti-immigration, and pro-Russia. In the February 2025 federal election, the AfD became Germany’s second-largest party nationwide.
Alternative für Deutschland (AfD)
And for some reason, a certain illegal immigrant from Africa goes out of his way to help them.
Elon Musk declared that “only the AfD can save Germany,” published an op-ed backing it and hosted Alice Weidel for a 75-minute conversation urging support for the far right party.
Elon Musk declared that “only the AfD can save Germany,” published an op-ed backing it and hosted Alice Weidel for a 75-minute conversation urging support for the far right party.
Musk even appeared on video at the AfD’s 2025 campaign launch in Halle, in the same Sachsen-Anhalt state that votes this Sunday. Addressing thousands of supporters, he called the party “Germany’s best hope” and told Germans that they “focus too much on past guilt.”
Tillschneider loved it. The next day he thanked Musk “endlessly” for the speech and said it would help Germany end its “cult of guilt” over the Nazi era.
He fits on the far right of the party: Patriotische Plattform, Björn Höcke’s Flügel and ties with the Identitarians.
He fits on the far right of the party: Patriotische Plattform, Björn Höcke’s Flügel and ties with the Identitarians.
Some in Tillschneider’s party certainly seem to have overcome the guilt already.
In 2024, AfD Maximilian Krah said that not everyone who wore an SS uniform was automatically a criminal.
Even Marine Le Pen’s RN cut ties with the AfD over this.
In 2024, AfD Maximilian Krah said that not everyone who wore an SS uniform was automatically a criminal.
Even Marine Le Pen’s RN cut ties with the AfD over this.
Maximillian Krah
And Tillschneider, who could become Sachsen-Anhalt’s education minister, wants to reshape how German history is taught. National Socialism would “of course” remain in the curriculum — but “somewhat less”.
His own summary: “More Bismarck, less Hitler.”
His own summary: “More Bismarck, less Hitler.”
Shortly before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Tillschneider called Putin a “real man” with a “healthy value system.”
His response to February 24, 2022? “Russia is defending itself!” and “the attacker is not the actual aggressor.”
His response to February 24, 2022? “Russia is defending itself!” and “the attacker is not the actual aggressor.”
When confronted in parliament about waving a Russian flag, Tillschneider protested: “I’m not a Kremlin agent; I’m a German patriot.”
The “German patriot” also told a rally: “Our enemies are not in Moscow. Our enemies are in Magdeburg and Berlin — and Washington”.
The “German patriot” also told a rally: “Our enemies are not in Moscow. Our enemies are in Magdeburg and Berlin — and Washington”.
In September 2022, Tillschneider travelled to Russia with AfD politicians Daniel Wald and Christian Blex.
Their plan was to (illegally) continue into Russian-occupied Donetsk and Luhansk to get their “own” view of the war.
Their plan was to (illegally) continue into Russian-occupied Donetsk and Luhansk to get their “own” view of the war.
Since 2023, the “German patriot” also writes a column in Vedomosti.
In August 2023, he attended a vatnik conference in Moscow, praising its goal of a “multipolar world order” and Russia’s “clean streets”.
In June 2024, he joined an AfD propaganda trip to Kaliningrad.
In August 2023, he attended a vatnik conference in Moscow, praising its goal of a “multipolar world order” and Russia’s “clean streets”.
In June 2024, he joined an AfD propaganda trip to Kaliningrad.
In March 2024, Putin staged another fake election; the Putinversteher congratulated him. In October 2025, he celebrated Putin’s birthday in the Russian embassy in Berlin. Tillschneider also helped Jürgen Elsässer launch Ostwind, literally a group for “understanding” Putin.
Tillschneider admires another Moscow resident: Bashar al-Assad. Even after Assad’s fall, he refused to retract “one iota” of his support — as fellow MPs asked: “Despite the torture? Despite the poison gas?”
Ironically, Assad’s atrocities and war crimes helped drive the Syrian exodus, while Putin intervened in 2015 to keep his regime in power. Syrians went on to become Germany’s largest refugee group, and migration a key topic for AfD.
By 2026, Tillschneider was proclaiming the end of “the era of international law”.
The emerging world order, he said, would consist of great-power spaces and their spheres of influence. And it’s pretty obvious which one of them the “German patriot” is siding with.
The emerging world order, he said, would consist of great-power spaces and their spheres of influence. And it’s pretty obvious which one of them the “German patriot” is siding with.
And Tillschneider isn’t merely posting from the sidelines. He wrote large parts of the AfD’s 2026 Sachsen-Anhalt program, which includes ending sanctions, restoring Nord Stream, expanding Russian-language teaching, and reviving student exchanges with Russia.
And he could end up as minister of education. The Sachsen-Anhalt election is this Sunday. The AfD is polling at around 42%, and Tillschneider is #3 on its list.
He can play dumb about the mug all he wants, but the man behind the mug is a real vatnik, not a German patriot.
He can play dumb about the mug all he wants, but the man behind the mug is a real vatnik, not a German patriot.
Russia spends $5 billion a year on propaganda narratives and information operations to manufacture support for its invasions through vatniks and useful idiots. Fact-based research to counter it takes time and effort — please support our work:
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Make sure to follow @vatniksoup_de for this soup in German and other exclusive content on Germany’s Putinverstehern.
More soup?
Links, documents, resources
Other
- To Kidnap and Russify
- AfD-Landtagsabgeordnete sorgen mit Besuch bei Putin-Ehrung für Ärger (de)
- AfD-Politiker aus Sachsen-Anhalt ehren Putin (de)
- „Russentrolle zeigen ihre Unterstützung immer unverblümter“ – Kritik an Tasse in Tillschneiders Büro (de)
- How the German right wing party AfD sides with Russia
- 'Absolutely Controlled MP': Documents Link AfD Parliamentarian To Moscow
- Kremlfreund im Bundestag: Geheime Nachrichten dokumentieren Moskaukontakte von AfD-Mitarbeiter (de)
- Wie sich die AfD trotz des Krieges nach Russland orientiert (de)
- Vereinsgründung: Der Ostwind besiegt den Westwind (de)
- Arnold Böcklin, The Isle of the Dead (1883)
- Das Buch Hitler – Geheimdossier des NKWD für Josef W. Stalin (de)
- Elon Musk backs AfD party in German newspaper opinion piece
- Musk hosts German far-right leader on X, stirs angst about election meddling
- Elon Musk appears on video at German far right campaign event
- Musk, Germany, the AfD and Auschwitz
- Gespräch ohne Widerspruch zwischen Musk und Weidel (de)
- Wie Musk sich in den Bundestagswahlkampf einmischt (de)
- Zu Gast bei AfD-Veranstaltung: Musk mischt erneut im deutschen Wahlkampf mit (de)
- Warum Elon Musk auf die AfD setzt – und warum er dabei irrt (de)
- Washington Post: Elon Musk reportedly worked illegally in the United States in the 1990s
- Washington Post reports Elon Musk briefly worked illegally in US in 1990s
- France’s far-right RN splits with Germany’s AfD in European Parliament
- German AfD candidate steps aside after SS comments as EU’s far right splits
- European Parliament’s far-right group expels Germany’s AfD after SS remark
- BBC: AfD education plans and “More Bismarck, less Hitler”
- Hans-Thomas Tillschneider, Saxony-Anhalt election, Erinnerungskultur and the AfD
- Wie AfD-Politiker Lehrer unter Druck setzen (de)
- Sachsen-Anhalt vor der Wahl: Was wäre, wenn? (de)
- Ulrich Siegmund, sunny face of the AfD, bids for power in German state election
- Germany’s Merz says victory for AfD in Saxony-Anhalt would deter foreign investors
- What would an AfD-led state government in Germany look like?
- Germany’s far-right AfD aims for breakthrough in state election
- AfD Sachsen-Anhalt: So radikal ist der Landesverband (de)
- Wahlkampf in Sachsen-Anhalt: Ulrich Siegmund und das Problem mit dem rechtsextremen Vorfeld (de)
- Russia divide resurfaces as AfD leads in Saxony-Anhalt
- Schools become battleground as Germany’s far-right AfD eyes regional election
- AfD will Einfluss auf Schulen nehmen (de)
- German state election draws Bauhaus into AfD culture war
- Patriotische Kunst: AfD Sachsen-Anhalt im Kulturkampf (de)
- 100 Jahre Bauhaus: Wie die AfD die Kultur in Sachsen-Anhalt umdeutet (de)
- Assad says he left Syria after Russian base came under attack
- Reuters: Russian military intervention in Syria in support of Assad
- Death by Chemicals: The Syrian Government’s Widespread and Systematic Use of Chemical Weapons
- Human Slaughterhouse: Mass Hangings and Extermination at Saydnaya Prison, Syria
- Recommendations on Next Steps for Comprehensive Justice for Syria
- Paul Ronzheimer — Tillschneider / Tasse der russischen Armee (de)
- Paul Ronzheimer — Bluesky-Profil (de)
- Der AfD-Politiker und die russische Armee (de)
- „Russentrolle zeigen ihre Unterstützung immer unverblümter“ – Kritik an Tasse in Tillschneiders Büro (de)
- „Impertinentes Verhalten“: AfD-Politiker streitet wegen russischer Armeetasse mit „Bild“-Reporter (de)
- Unwichtig, aber bitte nicht zeigen: AfD-Vize Tillschneider und seine russische Armeetasse (de)
- Hans-Thomas Tillschneider — X-Profil (de)
- Dr. Hans-Thomas Tillschneider (AfD) – Biografie (de)
- AfD-Parteitag: AfD spricht Islam Fähigkeit zur Aufklärung ab (de)
- AfD-Parteitag: „Der Islam gehört nicht zu Deutschland“ (de)
- Radikales AfD-Netzwerk: Der Sunnyboy des Rechtsextremismus (de)
- AfD-Verbot: Beweise gegen Hans-Thomas Tillschneider (de)
- Offener Rassismus – die unaufhaltsame Radikalisierung der AfD (de)
- Vor der Entscheidung: Der Machtkampf in der AfD (de)
- Die AfD: Schutzschild der extremen Rechten? (de)
- AFD Archiv (de)
- Russlands Krieg entlarvt Europas Rechte (de)
- Landtag Sachsen-Anhalt: „Unsere Feinde sitzen in Magdeburg, Berlin und Washington“ (de)
- Landtag Sachsen-Anhalt: Tillschneider zur russischen Fahne und „deutscher Patriot“ (de)
- Westbindung ist keine Alternative (de)
- AfD-Landtagsabgeordneter schreibt für russische Zeitung (de)
- AfD-Politker schreibt regelmäßig Gastbeiträge in Moskauer Tageszeitung (de)
- AfD-„Wahlbeobachter“ in Russland: Statisten in Putins Inszenierung? (de)
- Weidel bestreitet Nähe der AfD zu Putin (de)
- Reaktionen auf Wahl in Russland: Nur die AfD gratuliert Putin (de)
- AfD-Politiker aus Sachsen-Anhalt ehren Putin (de)
- AfD-Landtagsabgeordnete sorgen mit Besuch bei Putin-Ehrung für Ärger (de)
- AfD-Politiker schwenken Flaggen für Russland in Kaliningrad (de)
- AfD: So oft reisen ihre Abgeordneten nach Russland (de)
- AfD-Abgeordnete reisen in von Russland besetzte Gebiete in der Ostukraine (de)
- Russland-Fan Tillschneider wird für Siegmund zum Problem (de)
- „Remigration“ als Leitmotiv: Was die AfD in Sachsen-Anhalt plant (de)
- Landtagswahl Sachsen-Anhalt: AfD plant radikalen Umbau (de)
- MDR: Tillschneider und die mögliche Rolle als Bildungsminister (de)
- Hans-Thomas Tillschneider: AfD-Bildungsminister in Sachsen-Anhalt? (de)
- Landtag Sachsen-Anhalt: Tillschneider über Assad und Syrien (de)
- Landtag debattiert über Syrien, Assad, Flüchtlinge und Abschiebungen (de)
- AfD-Politiker Tillschneider verteidigt Baschar al-Assad (de)
- Destatis: Syrienkrieg und Fluchtmigration nach Deutschland (de)
- Destatis: Schutzsuchende nach Staatsangehörigkeit (de)
- Konstantin Wecker soll sexuelle Beziehung zu Minderjähriger gehabt haben (de)