Erdogan
and the Satirist: Inside Merkel's Comedy Conundrum
By
SPIEGEL Staff
With
his insulting poem about Turkish President Erdogan, Jan Böhmermann
has triggered an affair of state. Now, Chancellor Merkel has elected
to allow legal proceedings against the German comedian. What, though,
was Böhmermann's intent?
April 15, 2016 –
10:29 PM / DER SPIEGEL
Jan Böhmermann has
disappeared. He's not giving interviews; he's not answering his
phone. Since Monday, he has also gone silent on Twitter, where he is
normally extremely active. He has hardly left his home in Cologne in
the last few days and he is also now under police protection.
He had his Thursday
show on the German public broadcaster ZDF cancelled and his Sunday
radio show on RBB will likewise not be broadcast this week. It was
cancelled last Sunday as well. Böhmermann was already in his home
studio ready to record when he realized that he was in no mood to be
funny. So he called it off.
Friends and
acquaintances who have had contact with him in the last few days are
worried that he won't be able to withstand the pressure. The ZDF
satirist is a sensitive person, even if that hasn't always been part
of his public persona. The scandal surrounding the disparaging poem
he wrote about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has affected
him more deeply than many have realized. Perhaps one has to be
vulnerable to emotional pain in order to know how to inflict such
pain on others.
Two weeks ago, when
he was still active on social media, he tweeted out the Beatles hit
"The Fool on the Hill." The song is about a simpleton
sitting alone on a hill with a silly grin on his face -- and everyone
can see that he is a half-wit. It is essentially how people see
Böhmermann, and it is how he wanted to be seen: The misunderstood
fool. The tweet went out two days after his insulting Erdogan poem
was broadcast on his ZDF show "Neo Magazin Royale" and one
day after the broadcaster deleted the show from its video hub and
distanced itself from Böhmermann's verses. And that was just the
beginning.
Prior to the
scandal, Böhmermann had led a niche existence in Germany's media
landscape, but now everybody in the country knows who he is. The
35-year-old has triggered an affair of state, one which has served to
demonstrate just how limited Chancellor Angela Merkel's power really
is. And how absurd German law can be. If Böhmermann intended to show
just how powerful satire can be, he has been incredibly successful.
The Böhmermann
scandal is now entering its third week, and only now is it becoming
clear just what the five-minute clip has set in motion. It didn't
just shine the spotlight on the Turkish president's sensitivity and
the limits of chancellor's steadfastness, it has also unsettled all
of Germany -- a country which normally doesn't spend much time
thinking about satire and art and the freedoms associated with them.
On Friday, the need
for doing so became even more apparent. Chancellor Merkel announced
that the federal government had granted permission for criminal
proceedings to go ahead against Jan Böhmermann under the
controversial Paragraph 103 of the German Criminal Code. The law
makes it illegal to insult the representatives of foreign countries.
The federal government must approve the initiation of Paragraph 103
proceedings.
By granting
permission, Merkel has gone against the advice of Foreign Minister
Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Justice Minister Heiko Maas, both of whom
are members of the Social Democratic Party, Merkel's junior coalition
partner. The chancellor confirmed that the coalition partners had
expressed "differing views."
Yet even as she
announced that legal proceedings would go ahead, the chancellor also
signaled her intention to abolish the law before the end of the
current legislative session, saying it was "unnecessary."
The chancellor also shared her concerns about the situation of the
press in Turkey and the plights of individual journalists in the
country. She added that the German government would ensure freedom of
expression at home and she emphasized that the independence of the
judicial system applied as much in Turkey as it does in Germany and
"other countries in the democratic world."
'Kicking Kurds,
Beating Christians'
Merkel, in short,
was doing her best to walk a political tightrope -- trying to satisfy
Erdogan while at the same time seeking to assuage those voices which
have accused her of sacrificing European values in the interest of
securing a political deal with Turkey aimed at reducing the number of
refugees coming to Europe.
Ironically, it was a
tightrope not unlike the one Böhmermann was trying to walk. His
Erdogan poem was cleverly constructed. In the televised skit, he is
talking with his sidekick Ralf Kabelka about the limits of what is
allowed in Germany. Abusive criticism is not allowed, Kabelka says,
whereupon Böhmermann -- to make it clear exactly what isn't allowed
-- recites his poem about Erdogan. When the audience started
applauding, Böhmermann prevented them from doing so.
The poem includes
references to "goat fucking" and "oppressing
minorities." It calls Erdogan "dumb as a post, cowardly and
uptight" and "perverse, lice-ridden and a zoophile."
"Kicking Kurds, beating Christians all while watching child
porno films." It goes on in that vein.
The satirical verses
drove a wedge through the country. Böhmermann managed to demolish a
nationwide consensus that hadn't really been up for debate for years:
What are the limits of humor? For Böhmermann, though, consensus
generally isn't the solution; it is the problem. He views consensus
as poison.
His lines -- and
Merkel's decision to allow legal proceedings to ensue -- have now
divided Germany into two camps. One camp views Böhmermann as an
uncompromising political artist. Those in the second camp are unable
to get beyond the insulting nature of the poem -- the "pig fart"
and the "shriveled testicles." They wonder if it is really
worth it to defend Böhmermann's freedom to distill art out of
insults.
The real
provocateur, of course, is Erdogan himself, the man who is
Böhmermann's target and the man who is making life extremely
difficult for Chancellor Merkel. And his provocations have nothing
funny about them. It is a context that cannot be forgotten when
discussing the insulting poem that Böhmermann composed.
Those who criticize
Erdogan are, depending on the circumstances, accused of being
"terrorists," "traitors," "provocateurs"
or "agents" of a foreign power. In a country where the
majority is politically illiterate and gets its information from
pro-government television, most people believe the dominant narrative
of an evil world trying to keep Turkey in its place. In such an
atmosphere, it is even possible for a schoolchild to be prosecuted
over an ill-considered Facebook post.
No longer is the
discussion focused on whether the satirical poem successfully made
its point or not. The work of art has become much broader than that.
ZDF, the chancellor, Erdogan and the German public: All have become
part of Böhmermann's work.
Kowtowing to Erdogan
The chancellor's
role in the drama, put on full display on Friday, has been that of a
politician who is trying her best to stay above the fray without
getting her precious hands dirty. On the one hand, she sought to
soothe the irascible prince of the Bosporus, on the other, she didn't
want to seem as though she were kowtowing to Erdogan. She has failed
on both counts.
Germans are no
longer certain if the chancellor still knows where the limits of her
power lie. And in Turkey, the desire to take legal action against
Böhmermann has only become greater.
Böhmermann is both
provocative and exasperating -- which helps explain why this scandal
has not generated the reactions one has come to expect when an artist
is being threatened with prosecution. The country has neither joined
together to laugh at Böhmermann's poem nor has German society
unanimously rejected the stereotypes used in the insulting work.
Indeed, the effect
of Böhmermann's sketch is akin to that of a real work of art: It is
a puzzle that has inspired people to think hard about our crazy world
and the mad times in which we live. Instead of holding up a mirror to
the country, which is allegedly the function of cabaret, Böhmermann
has sent the country into a hall of mirrors and has provoked all
kinds of strange reactions. It is, in fact, these reactions which
have transformed the mini-sketch into a bona fide work of art.
Mathias Döpfner,
head of Springer Verlag, the publishing house that puts out Germany's
mass-circulation tabloid Bild, wrote an open letter in which he
expressed "full and complete" support for all of the
insults in the poem. Bild publisher Kai Diekmann tried his own hand
at satire by inventing and printing an "interview" with
Böhmermann -- one which wasn't funny at all. The German government
has elevated beating around the diplomatic bush to a new art form.
Government spokespersons have been reduced to stammering. The culture
pages of German newspapers have dubbed Böhmermann's transgression as
the only kind of real satire that is possible anymore. And other
artists have expressed solidarity with Böhmermann.
But a surprising
number of people, many of whom are usually among the first to jump on
the freedom-of-expression bandwagon, have declined to sign on this
time around.
Germany, it would
seem, is unsure how to respond. Böhmermann has triggered a debate
over a question that, it was thought, had long since been answered.
When, after all, was the last time that Germany has seriously
discussed where the limits of freedom lie?
Even ZDF head Thomas
Bellut, who approved the satire's broadcast, considers the poem to be
borderline. "You can see it both ways," he says. The ZDF
editor responsible, who talked about the controversial scene with
Böhmermann before ultimately giving it the green light, "will
not face any kind of disciplinary measures," Bellut says.
The Least Bad
Decision
He made the decision
to remove the scene from ZDF's online video hub based on "my
personal system of moral values," Bellut says. "It was not
an easy decision. But I still think it was the least bad decision
that I could make."
The decision taken
by the ZDF head and its program director is not uncontroversial among
the broadcaster's employees. On Thursday, the station's committee of
editors sent employees a letter that wasn't shy about praising
Böhmermann's poem. The letter noted that the ZDF program had a
direct effect on heads of government and launched a debate. "Program
mission fulfilled."
But Bellut rejected
the demand by the editorial representatives to put the satirical poem
back on line as a "historical document."
Still, Bellut says,
Böhmermann can count on the full support of ZDF. The broadcaster has
ensured him comprehensive legal support in his legal dispute with
Erdogan. "We will accompany him through all levels of
jurisdiction," he says.
Bellut was on
vacation when the episode of "Neo Magazin Royale" was
aired. He was watching the program live, but switched it off before
the controversial scene with the poem came on. It was only the next
morning that he and his program director Norbert Himmler were
alerted. Together, they decided to block access to the piece of
satire and take it off of the station's video hub.
Because the piece
was removed on April 1, there was initially some confusion
surrounding the move. Was ZDF's decision to take down the piece just
a gag? Was it Böhmermann's next satirical coup, carried out with the
approval of ZDF?
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