A water-soluble and/or water-swellable hybrid polymer comprising:(i) from 5 wt.-% to 95 wt.-% water-soluble and/or water-swellable polysaccharide polymer;(ii) from 5 wt.-% to 95 wt.-% synthetic polymer comprising: (a) from 40 mol-% to 99 mol-% of repeating units according to Formula (1)(b) from 0.01 mol-% to 5 mol-% crosslinking or branching units, wherein the crosslinking or branching units result from the incorporation of a monomer comprising at least two olefinically unsaturated double bonds;(c) from 0.99 mol-% to 59.99 mol-% of repeating neutral structural units;wherein components (i) and (ii) are polymerized by radical precipitation polymerization in a polar solvent.