''extra 3'' is a weekly

political satire Political satire is satire that specializes in gaining entertainment from politics; it has also been used with subversive intent where political speech and dissent are forbidden by a regime, as a method of advancing political arguments where s ...

show on

German television Television in Germany began in Berlin on 22 March 1935, broadcasting for 90 minutes three times a week. It was home to the first public television station in the world, named ''Fernsehsender Paul Nipkow''. In 2000, the German television market h ...

established in 1976. Produced by public TV broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk, it is aired on

NDR Fernsehen NDR Fernsehen is a German free-to-air regional television channel targeting northern Germany, specifically the states of Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Hamburg and Bremen. It is broadcast by both Norddeutscher Rundfun ...

and

3sat In logic and computer science, the Boolean satisfiability problem (sometimes called propositional satisfiability problem and abbreviated SATISFIABILITY, SAT or B-SAT) is the problem of determining if there exists an interpretation that satisfies ...

. Once a month, the show is promoted to ARD's national first program Das Erste. Invented by Dieter Kronzucker in 1976, the satire show was initially hosted by himself together with Peter Merseburger and

Wolf von Lojewski Wolf von Lojewski (born 4 July 1937) is a German journalist. Life Lojewski was born in Berlin and studied German law. Later he worked as a journalist for German public broadcasters NDR, ARD and ZDF. From 1 March 1992 until 2 ...

. Over the years, the show has seen a number of personalities co-hosting the magazine, starting with

Lea Rosh Rosh in 1990 Lea Rosh (; born Edith Renate Ursula Rosh on 1 October 1936) is a German television journalist, publicist, entrepreneur and political activist. Rosh was the first female journalist to manage a public broadcasting service in Germany a ...

, who joined the team in 1977.

History

In 2000, a special edition was co-hosted by leading politicians

Cem Özdemir Cem Özdemir (, ; born 21 December 1965) is a German politician who currently serves as Federal Minister of Food and Agriculture since 2021. He is a member of the Alliance 90/The Greens party. Between 2008 and 2018, Özdemir co-chaired the G ...

(Bündnis 90/Die Grünen),

Thomas Goppel Thomas Goppel (born 30 April 1947 in Aschaffenburg, Lower Franconia, Bavaria) is a German politician and party member of the CSU party. Goppel was member of the Landtag of Bavaria from 1974 to 2018. He is the son of the former Bavarian Minister P ...

(CSU),

Guido Westerwelle Guido Westerwelle (; 27 December 1961 – 18 March 2016) was a German politician who served as Foreign Minister in the second cabinet of Chancellor Angela Merkel and Vice-Chancellor of Germany from 2009 to 2011, being the first openly gay person ...

(FDP) and Gregor Gysi (Die Linke). Since 2014 ''extra 3'' offers a

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

channel with videos of full episodes and clips of regular sub-series such as ''Realer Irrsinn'' (real madness).

Erdoğan controversy

In its nationally aired show on 17 March 2016, ''extra 3'' presented a satirical music video titled " Erdowie, Erdowo, Erdogan", adapted from German pop star

Nena Gabriele Susanne Kerner (born 24 March 1960), better known as Nena, is a German singer and songwriter who rose to international fame in 1983 as the lead vocalist of the band Nena (band), Nena with the Neue Deutsche Welle song "99 Luftballons". I ...

's song ''

Irgendwie, irgendwo, irgendwann "Irgendwie, irgendwo, irgendwann" (German for "somehow, somewhere, sometime") is a 1984 song by Nena written by band members Jörn-Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen and Carlo Karges. It was a commercial success in Europe. Released initially as a single, i ...

''. The two-minute video shows a compilation of some of the most absurd public moments of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and footage of the Turkish government's crackdown on the

media Media may refer to: Communication * Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass e ...

, women rights protesters and

Kurds ug:كۇردلار Kurds ( ku, کورد ,Kurd, italic=yes, rtl=yes) or Kurdish people are an Iranian ethnic group native to the mountainous region of Kurdistan in Western Asia, which spans southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Ira ...

, while taking a lenient stance on the "brothers in faith from

ISIL An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ...

". The video also criticizes chancellor

Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Opp ...

for her migrant deal with Turkey to putting Turkey in the role of cracking down on the refugee influx to the EU, mocking her to "be charming to him since he has you well in hand" (german: Sei schön charmant, denn er hat Dich in der Hand). On 22 March, Erdoğan summoned German ambassador Martin Erdmann over the song, asking the German government to intervene and delete the video, as reported by AFP. While representatives of the German government declined to intervene, ''extra 3'' followed up with English- and Turkish-subtitled versions of the video and republished a number of earlier videos criticizing the Turkish government. Erdoğan's reaction to a satirical video produced an outcry from the German public with representatives of all German parties criticizing the situation of

censorship in Turkey Censorship in Turkey is regulated by domestic and international legislation, the latter (in theory) taking precedence over domestic law, according to Article 90 of the Constitution of Turkey (so amended in 2004). Despite legal provisions, free ...

and reaffirming that Germany takes its freedom of the press seriously. Sevim Dağdelen, in charge for foreign policy at the left-wing party Die Linke, demanded "a clear stand" from the foreign office, adding that "our fundamental rights cannot be sacrificed on the altar of the shabby EU-Turkey deal.” As reported by a

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...

spokeswoman, Commission President

Jean-Claude Juncker Jean-Claude Juncker (; born 9 December 1954) is a Luxembourgish politician who served as the 21st Prime Minister of Luxembourg from 1995 to 2013 and 12th President of the European Commission from 2014 to 2019. He also served as Finance Minister ...

said he "does not appreciate" Turkey's decision to call in the ambassador because of a satirical song, and "believes this moves Turkey further from the EU rather than closer to us."

Calling Alice Weidel a "Nazischlampe"

The satire show extra 3 called the 2017 lead candidate of the German party AfD,

Alice Weidel Alice Elisabeth Weidel (born 6 February 1979) is a German politician and has been the leader of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the Bundestag since October 2017. She has been a member of the Bundestag (MdB) since the 2017 federal election d ...

, a Nazi bitch, as a response to her rallying against political correctness. She was not amused and went to court. The Landgericht (Regional Court) in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

rejected the suit, explaining it with freedom of expression and satire with respect to political figures. Alice Weidel has brought it to the

Oberlandesgericht An ''Oberlandesgericht'' (plural – ''Oberlandesgerichte''; OLG, en, Higher Regional Court, or in Berlin '' Kammergericht'': KG) is a higher court in Germany. There are 24 OLGs in Germany and they deal with civil and criminal matters. They a ...

(Higher Regional Court), but has withdrawn the appeal.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Norddeutscher Rundfunk German political satire German satirical television shows Das Erste original programming 1976 German television series debuts 1970s German television series 1980s German television series 1990s German television series 2000s German television series 2010s German television series German-language television shows 2016 controversies Germany–Turkey relations