A German court on Tuesday rejected an attempt by the Turkish president to stop one of Europe’s most powerful media executives defending a comedian who insulted him.

A lawyer representing Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that a preliminary injunction had been filed in Cologne against Mathias Doepfner, chairman and chief executive of Axel Springer SE.

It was aimed, he said, at stopping a “wave of insults” against Mr Erdogan inspired by a satirical poem performed by Jan Boehmermann, a German comedian, last month.

In the poem Mr Boehmermann suggested Mr Erdogan hits girls, watches child pornography and engages in bestiality.

In an open letter published in Welt am Sonntag, a German newspaper, Mr Doepfner said he had laughed out loud over the poem.

He wrote: “I want to associate myself wholly with all of your words and insults ... and make them legally mine.”