This is a weird problem in de:WP and I think I need help. Consider the following wiki-code (reduced to almost the max):
Before [[File:NorderneyWinter2010.jpg|thumb|DescBefore [https://www.google.at/ [[File:Erioll world.svg|15px|link=]]] DescAfter ]] After
Creates a link to https://www.google.at/ (ok), but the area of the link (the <a> tag) is expanded beyond the image and covers also the text 'DescAfter' as well as the text 'After' after the image inclusion (in fact, this is a second <a> tag).
... DescBefore <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.google.at/"><img alt="Erioll world.svg" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9a/Erioll_world.svg/15px-Erioll_world.svg.png" width="15" height="15" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9a/Erioll_world.svg/23px-Erioll_world.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9a/Erioll_world.svg/30px-Erioll_world.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="256" data-file-height="256" /> DescAfter</a></div></div></div><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.google.at/"><p>After </p></a></div>
Changing the attribute link= from the empty value to something non-empty fixes the problem, but breaks the link.
I think I could move the link (to google in my example) from around the small icon to the link-attribute of the small icon (did not try), but the code is created by highly optimized templates and moving the link might cost an extra control statement.
This worked like a charm before. Problem popped up only recently. As far as I could check, nothing changed in the template code on de:WP creating that image description.
link=<no-value> is still in the descriptions, e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Pictures
Might be related to T209236