Germany, the land of Beethoven and Goethe, has voted for its most talented performer — and the winner is a dog.

More precisely, a Jack Russell terrier called Prima Donna, who satisfied millions of prime-time television viewers that she was the smartest creature in the country.

Prima Donna won the German equivalent of the television show Britain’s Got Talent by chasing her tail, walking on her hind legs and jumping through a hoop. When her owner Yvo Antoni performed some yoga-like moves the dog jumped on him.

And that was it. Most households have dogs that can do something similar. One of the most popular television shows in Germany, Kommissar Rex, featured a police dog that trapped drug dealers and sniffed out whitecollar criminals. The German humanist Loriot claimed to have a dog that could say: “Nine nuns fetch coal from the stove.” Now, that was talent.

Prima Donna, who won just over half of the votes from nine million viewers, fought off human competition including a corpulent, balding bespectacled 41-year-old man who, with a tenor voice, was counting on the Paul Potts effect. Other competition included winsome ten-year-olds, a fireworks expert and acrobats.

Plainly, the 2009 final was not going to be the year of the human. About 37,000 acts were weeded out before the final, but Prima Donna was the only dog. “A dog as Germany’s super talent, I didn’t reckon with that,” said Dieter Bohlen, the chief judge who is famed for his snarling Simon Cowell-like verdicts on performers.

Dogs have always been culturally important in Germany. The writer Thomas Mann made his dog Bauschan into a fictional character; dogs have been an accessory for politicians from Otto von Bismarck to Adolf Hitler. Angela Merkel, who was bitten when she was a child, is the first non-dog-loving politician to become a German leader.

So a dog that could stand on her hind legs was always going to be in with a chance in a national talent contest. She demonstrated her intelligence further by running away as soon as she was declared the winner.

Mr Antoni will go on tour with his Jack Russell, but promised: “We won’t be making a record.”

Times Recommends

• SAS veterans join new war on poachers
• Me real beauties: Cap’n Jack bans false breasts
• Saving Sahil