Jan Böhmermann () (born 23 February 1981) is a German
satirist
This is an incomplete list of writers, cartoonists and others known for involvement in satire – humorous social criticism. They are grouped by era and listed by year of birth. Included is a list of modern satires.
Under Contemporary, 1930-196 ...
, journalist, and
podcast
A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...
and television host. He also worked as a writer, producer, radio host, and is best known for his activism through
publicity stunt
In marketing, a publicity stunt is a planned event designed to attract the public's attention to the event's organizers or their cause. Publicity stunts can be professionally organized, or set up by amateurs. Such events are frequently utilize ...
s.
Early life and education
Böhmermann was born and raised in
Bremen
Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...
. His mother had immigrated to Germany in the early 1970s, and was part of the German minority in Poland. His father died from
leukemia
Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ' ...
when Böhmermann was 17 years old. Even though he remains silent about his private life, it is known that he has at least one child. He served as a
lay judge A lay judge, sometimes called a lay assessor, is a person assisting a judge in a trial. Lay judges are used in some civil law jurisdictions. Lay judges are appointed volunteers and often require some legal instruction. However, they are not permane ...
at the local court of
Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...
.
Career
In 1997, Böhmermann gained his first journalistic experience at "''Die Norddeutsche''", a local edition of Bremen's daily newspapers. In 1999, he began working as a moderator and reporter at "''
Radio Bremen
Radio Bremen (RB), Germany's smallest public radio and television broadcaster, is the legally mandated broadcaster for the city-state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (which includes Bremerhaven). With its headquarters sited in Bremen, Radio Brem ...
''". He applied to three drama schools, was rejected every time, and a fourth time successfully at the
Hanover
Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...
Drama School, where he did not compete. He also dropped out of his studies at the
University of Cologne
The University of Cologne (german: Universität zu Köln) is a university in Cologne, Germany. It was established in the year 1388 and is one of the most prestigious and research intensive universities in Germany. It was the sixth university to ...
in history, sociology, and theater, film, and television studies.
In 2004, he moved to
1Live on WDR as a presenter and comedian. There he invented the column ''"Lukas' Tagebuch" (Lukas' Diary),'' a parody of the Cologne professional soccer player
Lukas Podolski
Lukas Josef Podolski (; born Łukasz Józef Podolski, , on 4 June 1985) is a German professional footballer who plays as a forward for Ekstraklasa club Górnik Zabrze. Known for his powerful and accurate left foot, he is known for his explosive ...
. Podolski sued against it without success and refused interview requests from ARD during the
2006 World Cup. For the
2008 European Soccer-Championship, Böhmermann launched the podcast "''Pod-Olski – Der EM-Podcast von Lukas''", which made it to the top of the
iTunes
iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...
podcast charts. In the follow-up series ''Lukas' WG,'' Böhmermann moved his main character into a shared apartment with the mascot of
1. FC Köln,
billy goat
The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a domesticated species of goat-antelope typically kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the ...
''Hennes''.
In 2007, WDR television broadcast Böhmermann's six-part comedy show ''Echt Böhmermann''. In January 2009, Böhmermann founded the "''First Turkish Carnival Club of Germany (1st TKVD)''" as part of a
satirical
Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or e ...
action for the RTL program ''TV-Helden''. This action inspired a group of Turkish carnivalists from
Dortmund
Dortmund (; Westphalian nds, Düörpm ; la, Tremonia) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the eighth-largest city of Germany, with a population of 588,250 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the la ...
to found a real first Turkish carnival club. The program ''TV-Helden'' was awarded the 2009 German Television Prize in the category "''Best Comedy Program''." The program was also awarded the German Television Award. In the same year, Böhmermann published his first book "''Alles, alles über Deutschland – Halbwissen kompakt''". From 2009, Böhmermann was a member of the ensemble of
Harald Schmidt
Harald Franz Schmidt (born 18 August 1957) is a German actor, comedian, television presenter and writer best known as the host of two popular German late-night shows.
Early and private life
A son of refugees who fled from Sudetenland (now C ...
's program on ARD. Until 2011, the radio station 1Live ran the monthly satire and entertainment program "''Die ganz große Jan Böhmermann Radioschau''".
In 2010, Böhmermann joined ''
Lateline
''Lateline'' was an Australian television news program which ran from 1990 until 2017. The program initially aired weeknights on ABC TV. In later years it was also broadcast internationally throughout Asia and the Pacific on the Australia Plu ...
'' and wrote the column ''Gott fragt, Böhmermann antwortet (God asks, Böhmermann answers)'' for the youth edition of the ''
Süddeutsche Zeitung
The ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' (; ), published in Munich, Bavaria, is one of the largest daily newspapers in Germany. The tone of SZ is mainly described as centre-left, liberal, social-liberal, progressive-liberal, and social-democrat.
History ...
'' newspaper. Until April 2011, he hosted ''Beeck & Böhmermann'' on 1Live together with Simon Beeck.
Starting in January 2011, Böhmermann toured Germany for several weeks with
Klaas Heufer-Umlauf
Klaas Heufer-Umlauf (born 22 September 1983 in Oldenburg) is a German television host, producer, actor and singer. He is best known as part of the duo Joko & Klaas, alongside Joko Winterscheidt.
Biography
Heufer-Umlauf is a trained hairdresse ...
with the satirical
improv cabaret show "''Zwei alte Hasen erzählen von früher''". With Heufer-Umlauf, Böhmermann hosted a bi-weekly show on
Radio Eins
Radio is the technology of signaling and telecommunication, communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device ...
from November 2011 to September 2012 under the same title. Since Heufer-Umlauf's departure, he has hosted the show with singer-songwriter
Olli Schulz
Oliver Marc "Olli" Schulz (born 15 October 1973 in Hamburg) is a German singer-songwriter, actor and presenter. He became known as a singer and guitarist of the indie rock group Olli Schulz & der Hund Marie and as a sidekick of Joko Winterscheid ...
. Initially under the new title "''Joko und Klaas mit Olli und Jan''", then under the title "''Sanft & Sorgfältig''". From March 2013, Schulz and Böhmermann weekly went on air. Since May 2014, ''Sanft & Sorgfältig'' was broadcast on Sundays by five other radio stations (
Bremen Vier
Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consi ...
,
Dasding
DASDING is a youth radio station operated by Südwestrundfunk. It is moderated mostly by young people and is advertisement free. While playing a typical narrow rotation in the main hours, it also broadcasts alternative music genres in special show ...
,
N-Joy
N-Joy (also ''N-JOY'') is a German, public radio station by the Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) made for listeners with an age between 14 and 39. The headquarters is in Hamburg. Program director is Norbert Grundei.
N-Joy started broadcasting on 4 ...
, Puls and
You FM) in addition to Radio Eins. In April 2016, Böhmermann announced that he would not continue the show. He rejected a connection with the Böhmermann-Erdogan affair.
From September 2011 until the cancellation of the show, Böhmermann was on the team of the ''Harald Schmidt Show'' on
Sat.1. In 2019, Harald Schmidt said of Böhmermann: "I knew early on that Böhmermann would never make it as a moderator. But that he would make it very far as a riot act, I also knew."
Charlotte Roche
Charlotte Elisabeth Grace Roche (born 18 March 1978) is a British-German television presenter, author, producer, and actress.[ZDFkultur
ZDFkultur (stylized as zdf.kultur) was a German free-to-air television channel owned by ZDF. It was launched on 7 May 2011, replacing ZDF theaterkanal. It mainly broadcast music shows, such as '' Later... with Jools Holland'', pop concerts and ...]
on 4 March 2012. After two seasons, the last edition was shown in October 2012. In January 2013, ZDF announced that there would be no continuation of the show due to disagreements between those involved.
In November and December 2012, he went on tour with ''Lateline'' through the cities of Bremen,
Frankfurt
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
,
Baden-Baden
Baden-Baden () is a spa town in the states of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg, south-western Germany, at the north-western border of the Black Forest mountain range on the small river Oos (river), Oos, ten kilometres (six miles) east of the ...
,
Magdeburg
Magdeburg (; nds, label=Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river.
Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Magdebur ...
, and
Hanover
Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...
. The shows were broadcast live on ''
EinsPlus
EinsPlus was a German free-to-air television channel owned by ARD and operated by SWR. The channel launched on 29 August 1997 under the name ''EinsMuXx'', and was renamed ''EinsPlus'' on 23 April 2005.
The channel, along with ZDFkultur was c ...
''. Starting in April 2013, a second season with seven shows ran live from the Weserhaus in Bremen. The third season with five more shows was broadcast starting in November 2013.
Together with
Klaas Heufer-Umlauf
Klaas Heufer-Umlauf (born 22 September 1983 in Oldenburg) is a German television host, producer, actor and singer. He is best known as part of the duo Joko & Klaas, alongside Joko Winterscheidt.
Biography
Heufer-Umlauf is a trained hairdresse ...
, Böhmermann recorded the radio play ''Förderschulklassenfahrt'', which was continued in 2014 with the title ''Förderschulklassenfahrt 2 – Fünf Feinde und der Proletenhund''.
In October 2013,
Das Erste broadcast the program ''16 × Germany'', in which each German state was covered in 15-minute features. The focus was left to the authors. Böhmermann devoted himself to his hometown of Bremen. With his documentary-like satire, "audience and contributors were taken for a ride," as the media service ''Kressreport'' criticized. A museum expert interviewed by Böhmermann was deceived about the satirical intentions, and the film team put an invective into the mouth of a city hall doorman without consultation. Böhmermann completely invented two police officers who allegedly obstructed the filming and an alleged professor, without this being recognizable to the viewers. The responsible broadcaster, ''Radio Bremen'', defended Böhmermann's film as a
mockumentary
A mockumentary (a blend of ''mock'' and ''documentary''), fake documentary or docu-comedy is a type of film or television show depicting fictional events but presented as a documentary.
These productions are often used to analyze or comment on c ...
that "mercilessly uses and exaggerates the means of the documentary."
From October 2013 to December 2019, he hosted the political-satirical late-night show ''
Neo Magazin'' on
ZDFneo
ZDFneo is a German free-to-air television channel, programmed for an audience aged 25 to 49 to counter the primarily older-skewing main channels of public broadcasters ZDF and ARD. It replaced ZDF's documentary channel ZDFdokukanal on 1 Nove ...
. It was, like Roche & Böhmermann, produced by "bildundtonfabrik". ZDF has shown a repeat of the show on Friday nights since February 2015, since then named "addition Royale.
Starting in March 2014, Böhmermann went on tour in Germany with his stage program "''Schlimmer als Jan Böhmermann''", in which he preserves jokes and one-liners from his previous shows and publications.
In February 2014, the television station RTL announced that it would be testing "''Was wäre wenn?''", a new comedy program with Böhmermann,
Palina Rojinski
Palina Rojinski ( Rozhinskaya, russian: Палина Рожинская; born 21 April 1985) is a Russian-German television presenter and actress based in Germany.
From 2009 to 2011, she hosted ''MTV Home'' on MTV Germany, and since 2011 has hos ...
, Katrin Bauerfeind and Jan Köppen. A pilot had been made back in 2012, and the first four episodes were recorded in March 2014 at the nobeo studios in
Hürth
Hürth is a town in the Rhein-Erft-Kreis, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Hürth shares borders with the city of Cologne and is about 6 km to the southwest of Cologne city centre, at the northeastern slope of the natural preserve Kott ...
. The first episode was broadcast on 28 August 2014 on RTL. The series was nominated in the category Comedy for the German Television Award 2014.
Böhmermann was the author of the show ''Die unwahrscheinlichen Ereignisse im Leben von ...'' ("the unlikely events in the life of ..."), which, like his own show, was produced by bildundtonfabrik. The show features a celebrity guest with sketches and live performances. On 20 July 2014, the first episode aired on WDR with guest
Frank Elstner
Timm Franz Maria Elstner (born 19 April 1942), known as Frank Elstner, is a German television presenter.
Early life
Elstner went to school in Rastatt in Germany and gained his first experience in broadcasting as a child when he acted in radio ...
.
In August 2015, Böhmermann and Olli Schulz announced in ''Neo Magazin Royale'' that they would produce a new edition of ''Roche & Böhmermann'' called ''Schulz & Böhmermann'' broadcast on ZDFneo starting on 10 January 2016. The texts introducing the invited guests were written and spoken by
Sibylle Berg
Sibylle Berg (born 2 June 1962) is a Swiss contemporary author and playwright. They write novels, essays, short fiction, plays, radio plays, and columns. Their 15 books have been translated into 30 languages. They have won numerous awards, inclu ...
. Ten more episodes followed in 2017, but at the end of the year, ''Schulz & Böhmermann'' was discontinued due to too low viewer numbers.
Since 15 May 2016, Schulz and Böhmermann have jointly hosted the podcast ''
Fest & Flauschig'' as a successor to their former show ''Sanft & Sorgfältig'' on Radio Eins. It is produced for
Spotify
Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...
and appeared weekly until early 2020. After 2020, when the podcast was expanded to twice weekly, Böhmermann and Schulz announced in the 18 March 2020 episode that due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
they would indefinitely release a shorter ''Fest und Flauschig: Zuhause'' podcast daily, i.e. from Tuesday to Friday and in addition to their regular Sunday podcast. These special shows aired in a weekday format from 26 March to 24 April. In 2018, it was the most-streamed Spotify podcast worldwide.
On 24 April 2017, Böhmermann became the first German comedian to guest on the U.S. talk show ''
Late Night''.
Böhmermann advocated for the welfare of
refugees
A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution. in quite a few shows and repeatedly criticized European refugee policies. He particularly dislikes the bans, criminalization attempts, and threatened prosecution of private sea rescue services. In the case of the arrest of German captain
Claus-Peter Reisch and the seizure of the ''
Lifeline'' sea rescue ship in Malta in July 2018, Böhmermann launched a fundraising campaign and collected around 200,000 euros in favor of a legal aid fund. Also on the occasion of the arrest of German sea rescue captain
Carola Rackete in Italy at the end of June 2019, Böhmermann, together with the presenter Klaas Heufer-Umlauf, called for donations for her and the
Sea-Watch
Sea-Watch is a German non-governmental organisation that operates in the Mediterranean Sea, notably by commissioning ships to rescue migrants.
History
On 6 November 2017, the crew of a Sea-Watch ship rescued 58 people in an operation hindered b ...
association. Within a few days, almost one million euros was collected.
On 29 August 2019, Böhmermann announced in a satirical broadcast that he wanted to become SPD party chairman. A month later, he joined the party.
Controversies
"V for Varoufakis" video, 2015
In February 2015, Böhmermann's late-night show ''Neo Magazin Royale'' created the song and music video "''V for Varoufakis''". The title references ''
V for Vendetta
''V for Vendetta'' is a British graphic novel written by Alan Moore and illustrated by David Lloyd (with additional art by Tony Weare). Initially published between 1982 and 1985 in black and white as an ongoing serial in the British anthol ...
'', which introduced the
Guy Fawkes mask
The Guy Fawkes mask (also known as the ''V for Vendetta'' mask or Anonymous mask) is a stylised depiction of Guy Fawkes (the best-known member of the Gunpowder Plot, an attempt to blow up the House of Lords in London on 5November 1605) created ...
as a symbol of rebellion. In addition to poking fun at Germans generally, the video explored the German fascination with Greek finance minister
Yanis Varoufakis
Ioannis "Yanis" Varoufakis ( el, Ιωάννης Γεωργίου "Γιάνης" Βαρουφάκης, Ioánnis Georgíou "Giánis" Varoufákis, ; born 24 March 1961) is a Greek economist and politician. A former academic, he served as the Gree ...
, who is regarded as articulate, physically attractive and having a stylish, if unconventional fashion sense, while also portraying Greece's dependence on German money during the
Greek government-debt crisis
Greece faced a sovereign debt crisis in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2007–2008. Widely known in the country as The Crisis ( Greek: Η Κρίση), it reached the populace as a series of sudden reforms and austerity measures that ...
. Unlike most content on the ZDF program ''Neo Magazin Royale'', the song is in English and not in German.
The conclusion of the video shows an actual clip of Varoufakis in which he says "and
stick the finger to Germany, and say 'well, you can now solve this problem for yourself'. Right?" The clip shows Varoufakis giving the finger, a gesture called "Stinkefinger" in German. This clip had been taken out of context: Varoufakis had used a rhetorical example of what not to do. After TV host
Günther Jauch
Günther Johannes Jauch (; born 13 July 1956) is a German television presenter, television producer, and journalist.
Career
Jauch is known for a unique style of informing and entertaining people that is generally considered witty and funny. ...
confronted Varoufakis with the video clip in an interview (still out of context), German news media made the issue of Varoufakis giving Germany the finger into a minor scandal.
The ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' ran an article with the title "German Media Want Greek Finance Minister's Head Over 'Fingergate'". Varoufakis himself briefly claimed that the video must have been doctored.
''
NZZ am Sonntag'' called for Günther Jauch to be fired for bad journalism.
In response to the claims of the middle finger being either fake or real, Böhmermann's ''Neo Magazine Royale'' created a false version of the video clip labelled ''#varoufake'', which claimed to show that Varoufakis had not given the finger, and that the clip ''Neo Magazine Royale'' had used in "''V for Varoufakis''" was indeed a fabrication. At 8:10 in the video, Böhmermann says the following:
This passage of the #varoufake video caused confusion,
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
interpreted it as an admission that the video in which the finger was given was the original footage. However, this quote is more likely meant to say that the editors of
did not edit the footage, because as explained in the rest of the video, the editors of ''NEO Magazine Royal'' edited it. The media were unclear as to which version was unmanipulated, and ZDF had to officially state that ''Neo Magazin Royale'' is satire and should not be taken at face value. Varoufakis himself praised Böhmermann's mockery of the German media on Twitter, writing "@janboehm Humour, satire & self deprecation are great solvents of blind nationalism. We politicians need you badly." Böhmermann won a
'' aired a critical song about Erdogan, which led to protests of the Turkish government.
Two weeks later, on 31 March 2016 Böhmermann presented a poem named "''
public channel. Afterwards, twenty people lodged a complaint. Proceedings instituted by the prosecutor's office for "insulting of organs and representatives of foreign states" were based on principles §103 and §104 in the
. In the satire, Böhmermann called Turkish president
"the man who beats girls", and said that Erdogan loved to "fuck goats and suppress minorities, kick Kurds, hit Christians, and watch child pornography."
Much of the rest of the poem was devoted to associating Erdogan with various less accepted forms of sexuality. Böhmermann deliberately played with the limits of satire and said several times that this form of abusive criticism was not allowed in Germany.
The ZDF channel distanced itself from the poem and cut it out of the program which can be seen in its internet archives "''Mediathek."''
planned to consult the federal Justice Ministry on whether to launch criminal proceedings. The Turkish government released a verbal note in which it demanded the criminal prosecution of Böhmermann.
According to the law, the government has to approve the demand for criminal prosecution by a foreign government, before criminal proceedings can be started because of §103/104
. Therefore Angela Merkel accepted the request from Turkey to seek his prosecution, but stressed that the acceptance was not due to the merits of the prosecution case. In addition, Erdogan himself made a complaint against Böhmermann as a private person because of the alleged insult. The vice minister president of Turkey,
, called the poem a "serious crime against humanity".
, made a plea for "solidarity with Jan Böhmermann". He compared Böhmermann's poem to the works of
. He also referenced
ing to the Turks. The former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis wrote on Twitter: "Europe first lost its soul (agreement with Turkey on refugees), now it is losing its humour. Hands off @janboehm!" More than 100,000 people signed a petition for Böhmermann at
. In a satirical letter to president Erdogan, the mayor of
), assured Erdogan his "solidarity" and demanded the extradition of Böhmermann to Turkey. "Cut off Böhmermann's testicles, so he never makes fun of presidents with a short dick again", he wrote. The letter is signed "most respectfully, Boris Palmer".
poll revealed, that a majority of the Germans supported Böhmermanns position. 48 percent of the pollees found the poem appropriate, 29 percent view it as undue. A great majority (66 percent) opposed the deletion of the poem on the ZDF website as well as Merkel's criticism of the poem as "intentionally hurtful" (68 percent). Only 15% support a criminal investigation, with 77% against.
In April 2016 it was reported that Böhmermann was under
, because he was threatened by supporters of Erdogan.
The filming of the upcoming edition of ''Neo Magazin Royale'' was cancelled due to "massive media reporting and the focus on the programme and the presenter".
Böhmermann had also cancelled his radio show ''Sanft & Sorgfältig'' on Sunday and his appearance at the