“Ich bin ein Berliner” Speech (June 26, 1963)—Miller Center MP3 Transcript I am proud to come to this city as the guest of your distinguished Mayor, who has symbolized throughout the world the fighting spirit of West Berlin. And I am proud to visit the Federal Republic with your distinguished Chancellor who for so many years has committed Germany to democracy and freedom and progress, and to come here in the company of my fellow American, General Clay, who has been in this city during its great moments of crisis and will come again if ever needed. Two thousand years ago the proudest boast was "civis Romanus sum." Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is "Ich bin ein Berliner." I appreciate my interpreter translating my German! There are many people in the world who really don't understand, or say they don't, what is the great issue between the free world and the Communist world. Let them come to Berlin. There are some who say that communism is the wave of the future. Let them come to Berlin. And there are some who say in Europe and elsewhere we can work with the Communists. Let them come to Berlin.

And there are even a few who say that it is true that communism is an evil system, but it permits us to make economic progress. Lass' sic nach Berlin kommen. Let them come to Berlin. Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in, to prevent them from leaving us. I want to say, on behalf of my countrymen, who live many miles away on the other side of the Atlantic, who are far distant from you, that they take the greatest pride that they have been able to share with you, even from a distance, the story of the last 18 years. I know of no town, no city, that has been besieged for 18 years that still lives with the vitality and the force, and the hope and the determination of the city of West Berlin. While the wall is the most obvious and vivid demonstration of the failures of.

the Communist system, for all the world to see, we take no satisfaction in it, for it is, as your Mayor has said, an offense not only against history but an offense against humanity, separating families, dividing husbands and wives and brothers and sisters, and dividing a people who wish to be joined together. What is true of this city is true of Germany—real, lasting peace in Europe can never be assured as long as one German out of four is denied the elementary right of free men, and that is to make a free choice. In 18 years of peace and good faith, this generation of Germans has earned the right to be free, including the right to unite their families and their nation in lasting peace, with good will to all people. You live in a defended island of freedom, but your life is part of the main. So let me ask you, as I close, to lift your eyes beyond the dangers of today, to the hopes of tomorrow, beyond the freedom merely of this city of Berlin, or your country of Germany, to the advance of freedom everywhere, beyond the wall to the day of peace with justice, beyond yourselves and ourselves to all mankind.

Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free. When all are free, then we can look forward to that day when this city will be joined as one and this country and this great Continent of Europe in a peaceful and hopeful globe. When that day finally comes, as it will, the people of West Berlin can take sober satisfaction in the fact that they were in the front lines for almost two decades. All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words "Ich bin ein Berliner!" Charlottesville: Mailing Address—P.O. Box 400406, Charlottesville, VA 22904 | Street Address—2201 Old Ivy Road 434-924-7236 | fax—434-982-2739 JFK's 'Ich Bin ein Berliner' Mistake By David Emery Updated January 05, 2017. Did John F. Kennedy make a major German language blunder in his famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech in Berlin, Germany?

The Urban Legend of the Berliner-Jelly Doughnut Gaffe The story goes that JFK should have said "Ich bin Berliner" ("I am a citizen of Berlin"), and that "Ich bin ein Berliner" really means "I am a jelly doughnut." A Berliner is, in fact, a type of jelly doughnut made in Berlin. But was this an error and a source of amusement and embarrassment? The Berliner Gaffe That Never Was Notwithstanding reports to the contrary in such prestigious venues as the New York Times and Newsweek, this is truly The Gaffe That Never Was. Experts say Kennedy's grammar was flawless when he uttered those words on June 26, 1963. The phrase had been translated for him by a professional interpreter. German-speakers point out that President Kennedy said the phrase absolutely correctly, although possibly with a thick American accent. The German language has subtleties that very few non-native speakers grasp. continue reading below our video Great Singers Gone too Soon If President Kennedy had said "Ich bin Berliner," he would have sounded silly because with his heavy accent he couldn't possibly have come from Berlin.

But by saying "Ich bin ein Berliner," he actually said "I am one with the people of Berlin." President Kennedy had a German journalist translate the phrase for him, and that journalist coached him at length on exactly how to say the phrase. Parenthetically, it is true that in some parts of Germany the word Berliner can just as well denote a certain kind of jelly-filled pastry as a citizen of Berlin. But it is unlikely to have cause confusion in the context. For example, telling a group of Americans that your editor is a New Yorker, would any of them really think you'd confused him with the weekly magazine of the same name? Consider the context. A German Grammar Lesson Laying decades of misinformation to rest, linguist Jürgen Eichhoff undertook a concise grammatical analysis of Kennedy's statement for the academic journal Monatshefte in 1993. "'Ich bin ein Berliner' is not only correct," Eichhoff concluded, "but the one and only correct way of expressing in German what the President intended to say." An actual Berliner would say, in proper German, "Ich bin Berliner." But that wouldn't have been the right phrase for Kennedy to use.

The addition of the indefinite article "ein" is required, explains Eichhoff, to express a metaphorical identification between subject and predicate, otherwise the speaker could be taken to say he is literally a citizen of Berlin, which was obviously not Kennedy's intention. To give another example, the German sentences "Er ist Politiker" and "Er ist ein Politiker" both mean "He is a politician," but they're understood by German speakers as different statements with different meanings.

The first means, more exactly, "He is (literally) a politician." The second means "He is (like) a politician." You would say of Barack Obama, for example, "Er ist Politiker." But you would say of an organizationally astute coworker, "Er ist ein Politiker." So, while the proper way for a Berlin resident to say "I am a Berliner" is "Ich bin Berliner," the proper way for a non-resident to say he's a Berliner in spirit is precisely what Kennedy said: "Ich bin ein Berliner." In spite of the fact that it can also be the correct way to say "I am a jelly donut," no adult German speaker could possibly have misunderstood Kennedy's meaning in context, or regarded it as a mistake. The Translator The man who actually translated the words into German for JFK is was Robert Lochner , the son of Associated Press correspondent Louis P. Lochner. The younger Lochner, educated in Berlin and a fluent speaker of German, was Kennedy's official interpreter on his visit to Germany. Lochner translated the phrase on paper then rehearsed it with JFK in Berlin Mayor Willy Brandt's office right up to the moment the speech was to be delivered.

In the interests of international peace and harmony, we can be thankful that the president was well-coached that day before addressing his audience in their native tongue. Otherwise, God forbid, he might have stood before the German people and claimed to be a croissant. Quelle horreur! Perpetuating the Berliner-Jelly Donut Myth Following are examples of the "I'm a jelly donut" tale making the rounds via old and new media in recent years: BBC News - John F Kennedy: How 'Ich bin ein Berliner' gave a city hope John F Kennedy: How 'Ich bin ein Berliner' gave a city hope By Stephen Evans BBC News, Berlin 10 things we didn't know last week President John F Kennedy's "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech was a message of solidarity to West Berlin at the height of the Cold War. Some 50 years on, previously unseen photographs of his visit to the city have the power to recreate the drama of the moment. There's no doubt that Kennedy's speech was one of the great speeches of history.

It's hard to imagine those pressured times now, but 50 years ago the world was divided into two blocs of East and West, each with an arsenal of nuclear rockets pointed at the other. The atomic battleground would be Europe, and Berlin was its centre. West Berlin, made up of the city's American, British and French zones, was an island of capitalism in the communist Soviet sector of Germany, also known as the German Democratic Republic. There was literally a wall round it - the barbed wire and first stages of the Berlin Wall had been erected only 22 months before Kennedy arrived. And just eight months before the speech, Kennedy had faced down the Soviet leader, Khrushchev, over Soviet missiles in Cuba. There was a real possibility of nuclear war. Fear really was in the air. Already one person had been shot trying to flee from East to West Berlin. And in recent memory, the East German and Soviet authorities had closed off food supplies to the Western sectors of the city, prompting the air-lift of supplies direct to the city - nearly 5,000 tons a day. Into these tense and dangerous times stepped the charismatic Kennedy, young for a leader at 46.

He spent four days in Germany but it's the visit to the island of West Berlin on 24 June 1963 which captivated the eyes of the world. And the eyes of a young photographer. Ulrich Mack was commissioned by the magazine Quick to cover the trip. He took 400 photographs on six Leica cameras, each with a different lens, but only six were published, and none on the front page. Mack told the BBC that the rest had lain in a box in his home until a friend asked where they were. Mack's photographs of the day have now been collated by publishers Hirmer in a book, Kennedy in Berlin, edited by Hans-Michael Koetzle. Of the day itself, when 400,000 people heard Kennedy utter the immortal line: "Ich bin ein Berliner", Mack remembers little except that it was warm and that he was frantic to get the best picture: "I was crazy about pictures," he says. He was allocated space on a truck for new-fangled devices called television cameras. It meant that he had a better view than many of the other press photographers and that he was more mobile. The truck moved wherever Kennedy went and Mack moved with them.

This was the best work I've ever done” End Quote Ulrich Mack Photographer What strikes you when you talk to Mack these days is how unmoved he was by the historical significance of the occasion. It was, for him, not a great moment in a history but a great opportunity to take pictures, particularly better pictures than those of his rivals. Did the photographer ever talk to the president, for example? "Do I get something better if I talk to him? I do not," he replies. "It was very warm and I was just searching for the best picture. "I was just one big eye with six Leicas. And this was the best work I've ever done." The images capture the heightened excitement of what is at times a frenetic scene - the crowds surging to shake hands with the young president. Few worried about security then - it would take Dallas nearly five months later to reveal how imperilled he really was. The newspapers had reported that Kennedy didn't like Germany - he had fought in the war and was uneasy about the economic progress the loser of that war was making. Spiegel had a headline: "John F Kennedy doesn't like the Germans". But Berlin changed that. He was greeted by hundreds of thousands of people.

This magnetic leader seemed so different from the dour Konrad Adenauer of Germany or the prim, old-world, patrician Macmillan of Britain or the gracelessness of the brutish Khrushchev. As the New York Times described it at the time: "Along the route from Tegel airport to the United States mission headquarters in the southwest corner of Berlin, waving, cheering crowds lined every foot of the way. "The crowds must have nearly equalled the population of the city, but many persons waved once and then sped ahead to greet Mr Kennedy again." He did not deliver the speech at the Brandenburg Gate, unlike President Reagan in 1987 and President Obama in 2013.The iconic monument which symbolises Berlin was right on the route of the Wall. Kennedy went there in the back seat of an open-topped limousine, sitting next to Willy Brandt, then the mayor of Berlin and later Chancellor of Germany, and Konrad Adenauer, the incumbent Chancellor. The Brandenburg Gate itself was just inside East Germany and the authorities had draped its arches with red banners, obscuring the view into the East.

They, too, were alert to a photo-opportunity and they had placed a placard there, pointing West, which listed in English a series of aims: "To uproot German militarism and Nazism; to arrest war criminals and bring them to judgement etc", and then a direct question: "When will these pledges be fulfilled in West Germany and West Berlin, President Kennedy?" It would have been highly provocative for Kennedy to make his speech there, at the Brandenburg Gate. Instead, he made it on the steps of the town-hall of the Berlin suburb of Schoneberg. Something like 400,000 people gathered in the square as he spoke. And they erupted at the line which resonated round the world. He had been toying with the phrase for some weeks before. He had discussed it with his main speech writer and with people drafted in to help him with his Boston-drawl German pronunciation, which, it is generally agreed, was pretty poor. But it was not in the typed transcript of the speech to be delivered - he added it in his own hand. He does seem to have extemporised, going beyond what his advisers had suggested.

Certainly, the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev felt he had been provocative. A few weeks earlier, Kennedy had given a speech which seemed - to Khrushchev, at least - to suggest a more constructive, co-operative relationship between the two great powers. The Soviet leader is reported to have said after the Berlin speech that the two speeches could have been written by two different people. Did he, by inserting the word "ein" into "Ich bin Berliner" - the normal, conversational way of saying "I am a Berliner" - unintentionally say he was a jam donut? This claim has often been made, but Berliners of the human variety will tell you that a jam donut in Berlin is not called a Berliner (though it is in the south of the country), so on the day nobody laughed. And anyway, the added word "ein" can be used here to add emphasis. And anyway, who can doubt the greatness of the speech? Kennedy connected with a people under siege and who had been the survivors of a world war their parents had started and prosecuted to the utmost destruction and defeat. Berliners loved him.

And he cemented the view - in the world and in the Kremlin - that the city was irrevocably part of the West. Kennedy in Berlin, edited by Hans-Michael Koetzle, photographs by Ulrich Mack, is published by Hirmer. You can follow the Magazine on Twitter and on Facebook More on This Story Campaign posters warn women not to inflict smoke on their unborn children. Share this page BBC NEWS | Europe | Text: Kennedy's Berlin speech Text: Kennedy's Berlin speech Kennedy: Germans have earned the right to be free Berliners are marking the 40th anniversary of former US president John F Kennedy's "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech. The speech was perhaps the most famous single moment of the Cold War. More than a million West Berliners had gathered to hear the US president, and they responded with a great roar of approval. The text of the speech, made in Berlin on 26 June 1963: I am proud to come to this city as the guest of your distinguished Mayor, who has symbolised throughout the world the fighting spirit of West Berlin.

And I am proud to visit the Federal Republic with your distinguished chancellor who for so many years has committed Germany to democracy and freedom and progress, and to come here in the company of my fellow American, General Clay, who has been in this city during its great moments of crisis and will come again if ever needed. There are many people in the world who really don't understand, or say they don't, what is the great issue between the free world and the Communist world - let them come to Berlin John F Kennedy Two thousand years ago the proudest boast was "civis Romanus sum". Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is "Ich bin ein Berliner". I appreciate my interpreter translating my German! 'Vitality and force' There are many people in the world who really don't understand, or say they don't, what is the great issue between the free world and the Communist world. Let them come to Berlin. There are some who say that Communism is the wave of the future. Let them come to Berlin. And there are some who say in Europe and elsewhere we can work with the Communists. Let them come to Berlin.

And there are even a few who say that it is true that Communism is an evil system, but it permits us to make economic progress. Lass' sie nach Berlin kommen. Let them come to Berlin. All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words "Ich bin ein Berliner". John F Kennedy Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in, to prevent them from leaving us. I want to say, on behalf of my countrymen, who live many miles away on the other side of the Atlantic, who are far distant from you, that they take the greatest pride that they have been able to share with you, even from a distance, the story of the last 18 years. I know of no town, no city, that has been besieged for 18 years that still lives with the vitality and the force, and the hope and the determination of the city of West Berlin.

'Part of the main' While the wall is the most obvious and vivid demonstration of the failures of the Communist system, for all the world to see, we take no satisfaction in it, for it is, as your mayor has said, an offence not only against history but an offense against humanity, separating families, dividing husbands and wives and brothers and sisters, and dividing a people who wish to be joined together. Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free John F Kennedy What is true of this city is true of Germany - real, lasting peace in Europe can never be assured as long as one German out of four is denied the elementary right of free men, and that is to make a free choice. In 18 years of peace and good faith, this generation of Germans has earned the right to be free, including the right to unite their families and their nation in lasting peace, with good will to all people. You live in a defended island of freedom, but your life is part of the main.

So let me ask you as I close, to lift your eyes beyond the dangers of today, to the hopes of tomorrow, beyond the freedom merely of this city of Berlin, or your country of Germany, to the advance of freedom everywhere, beyond the wall to the day of peace with justice, beyond yourselves and ourselves to all mankind. 'Front lines' Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free. When all are free, then we can look forward to that day when this city will be joined as one and this country and this great continent of Europe in a peaceful and hopeful globe. When that day finally comes, as it will, the people of West Berlin can take sober satisfaction in the fact that they were in the front lines for almost two decades. All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words "Ich bin ein Berliner". John F. Kennedy Berliner Quote : snopes.com - - Claim: President John F. Kennedy called himself a jelly donut in his famous 1963 speech in Berlin, Germany. FALSE Origins: On 26 June 1963, President John F.

Kennedy gave a speech in support of the citizens of West Berlin after the erection of the Berlin Wall. During that speech, Kennedy proclaimed solidarity with the citizens of Berlin by stating "Ich bin ein Berliner" (i.e., "I am a Berliner"). Afterward, rumors began to circulate that Kennedy had made a grammatical error and had referred to himself not as a citizen of Berlin, but rather a German confection similar to a jelly donut. This misconception was solidified partially by a 1988 New York Op-Ed piece , "I am a Jelly-Filled Donut." So where did the jelly donut claims originate? In parts of Germany, a jelly-filled pastry is known as a Berliner. This particular style of pastry originated in Berlin in the 16th and 17th centuries , and was known as Pfannkuchen. As the pastry spread outside the city, it came to be called the Berliner Pfannkuchen, or Berlin-style Pfannkuchen. This was eventually shortened to Berliner in some areas, but continues to be referred to as Pfannkuchen within Berlin. The grammatical debate hinges on the article ein.

In German, saying that you are a resident of an area generally dismisses the article prior to the noun, much as in the English sentence "I am American." By calling himself "ein Berliner" instead of merely "Berliner," Kennedy was, according to some, referring to himself as the pastry and not as a person. In the Times article, it is even claimed that the audience immediately made this association and began to giggle. Viewers of the video taken of the speech can quickly debunk that aspect of the legend themselves, however: What remains is the question, did Germans really think Kennedy called himself a jelly donut, and, well, did he? Kennedy wrote the speech with the assistance of Robert Lochner, who was, in fact, a Berliner, and a chief German interpreter for the United States during World War II. Lochner reviewed the speech with Kennedy, who also practiced the speech several times in front of other Germans, including Berlin's mayor, Willy Brandt. Surely the mistake, had there been one, would have been caught prior to the public recital.

In fact, the line was penned by Lochner himself, as he wrote later: "As we walked up the stairs to the city hall in West Berlin for Kennedy's major speech, he called me over and asked me to write on a piece of paper in German, "I am a Berliner." I did, and when we got to West Berlin Mayor Willy Brandt's office, while the hundreds of thousands of Berliners were cheering outside, Kennedy practiced it with me a few times before going out on the balcony for his historic speech." Claims of laughter during the speech itself are actually heard in response to Kennedy's joking remark, "I appreciate my interpreter translating my German," made after the applause died down from the first time he uttered the famous line, which he had scrawled out phonetically in his notes. Kennedy's famous line was penned by someone who was raised within Berlin itself and was an accomplished and highly regarded translator in his own right. In proclaiming "Ich bin ein Berliner," therefore, JFK was no more referring to himself as a pastry than someone calling himself a "New Yorker" would have been understood by Americans as styling himself to be a magazine or a town car.

Just as "I'm American" and "I'm an American" are both correct, so are "Ich bin ein Berliner" and "Ich bin Berliner." (In fact, some German speakers would regard the former to be the more correct for someone who was speaking figuratively, as Kennedy was.) Last updated: 21 November 2013 Sources: All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin. And therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words 'Ich bin ein Berliner!' - John F. Kennedy - BrainyQuote All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin. And therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words 'Ich bin ein Berliner!' Find on Amazon: John F. Kennedy Cite this Page: Citation "Ich bin ein Berliner" The crowd listening to Pres. Kennedyï¿½s speech. Source: The full text of President Kennedyï¿½s speech can be viewed and read here .. The Faux ï¿½Faux Pasï¿½ But what about the ï¿½mistakeï¿½, where Kennedy supposedly called himself a jelly-filled donut?

This incorrect interpretation did not surface for a full 25 years after the speech was given, and it came from a letter to the editor. In 1988, a man named Kenneth Oï¿½Neill wrote in a letter to the editor of Newsweek magazine: ï¿½To the Germans [ï¿½Ich bin ein Berlinerï¿½] meant ï¿½I am a jelly doughnutï¿½.ï¿½( 3 ) Just a few months later, the New York Times ran a full article entitled ï¿½I Am a Jelly-Filled Doughnut.ï¿½( 4 ) The fable took on a life of its own after this, in spite of attempts by German language specialists to refute it. The controversy revolves around the principle that German does not normally use an article between the verb sein and a noun indicating occupation, nationality or place of origin. Thus, we say ï¿½I am an American,ï¿½ but a German says ï¿½Ich bin Deutscher.ï¿½ Mr. Oï¿½Neill apparently assumed that since Pres.

Kennedy used the article ein, the people in the audience would automatically think he was not talking about nationality or place of origin, but rather some object called a ï¿½Berliner.ï¿½ As it turns out, there is a very popular pastry in Germany which is like a hole-less doughnut filled inside with (usually) strawberry jelly and sprinkled with sugar, and which is called a ï¿½Berlinerï¿½ in some parts of Germany. Hence, Mr. Oï¿½Neill stretched his imagination to assume that this was the only logical interpretation of JFKï¿½s words, and the press was only too happy to pick up on a presidential ï¿½blunder,ï¿½ even if it was 25 years afterward. Explanations Perhaps the definitive study on the ï¿½doughnutï¿½ question has been written by Jï¿½rgen Eichhoff, professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.( 5 ) Prof. Eichhoff points out that the two German phrases used by JFK in his speech were translated for him by his interpreter, a native German who grew up in Berlin.

Kennedy practiced the phrases several times in then-Mayor Willy Brandtï¿½s offices before it was time to give the speech. He even wrote down on note cards the phonetic transcriptions of the phrases given to him by his interpreter. (Click here to view one of those cards.) Kennedy specifically chose the phrase ï¿½Ich bin ein Berlinerï¿½ to make a clear parallel between Ciceroï¿½s significant declaration ï¿½civis Romanus sum,ï¿½ which JFK quoted at the beginning of his speech, and the situation in West Berlin in 1963 A.D. There are three primary reasons why no one in the audience that day in Schï¿½neberg could have possibly understood anything other than exactly what Pres. Kennedy intended: context; German grammar; and German regional vocabulary use. Context: No one in Berlin was thinking about pastries on the day the leader of the free world arrived in town.

In the context of the speech as a whole, which talked about citizenship and freedom, and in the context of those fearful, uncertain days of the cold war and Berlinï¿½s isolated situation some 100 miles within an unfriendly foreign nation, nothing but the primary meaning of the homonym Berliner could have been construed. A modern corollary would be if Pres. Bush went to New York City after September 11, 2001 to express solidarity with the people of that city by standing next to Mayor Giuliani and saying ï¿½I, too, am a New Yorker.ï¿½ It would be ludicrous to think that any person present would think Pres. Bush were referring to himself as a burrito. German grammar. If Kennedy had said, ï¿½Ich bin Berliner,ï¿½ he would have been stating that he had been born and raised in Berlin and that he was still a resident there. Of course, everyone in the audience knew this was not the case.

By adding the ein, which his native German interpreter did for him, he was emphasizing in effect that, ï¿½Even though I was not born here and do not live here, nevertheless I am one of you.ï¿½( 6 ) This is exactly the meaning he intended to convey and the only meaning the native residents would have understood. Colleagues of mine in Berlin have confirmed this view.( 7 ) Regional vocabulary usage. Although some Germans (and many Americans) refer to the pastry in question as a Berliner, people who live in Berlin or in any of the surrounding areas simply do not use that name. They predominantly use the term Pfannkuchen (pancake). A language map of German compiled during the 1970ï¿½s clearly shows that the term ï¿½Berlinerï¿½ in reference to a pastry is used almost exclusively in the far western borders of the former West Germany.( 8 ) This situation is similar to the regional usage of pancake, hotcake, flap jack, or griddle cake in the U.S. Another native German writer, and an expert on Berlin history, summarized the misunderstanding this way: There is a persistent erroneous claim, repeated again most recently by Michael R.

Beschloss, The Crisis Years: Kennedy, Khrushchev, 1960-1963 (New York, 1991), p. 606, that the phrase ï¿½ich bin ein Berlinerï¿½ is incorrect and should have been ï¿½ich bin Berliner,ï¿½ in part because Berliner also happens to be the word for a jelly roll. In actuality, ï¿½ich bin Berlinerï¿½ means that one is a native or, at least, a permanent resident of Berlin, whereas Kennedyï¿½s assertion that he, too, was a Berliner in spirit, is properly expressed as ï¿½ich bin (auch) ein Berliner.ï¿½( 9 ) In a recently published book on translations and mistranslations, a native German and professional translator emphasized that ï¿½there was no mistranslationï¿½ in Kennedyï¿½s speech.( 10 ) In conclusion, I wholeheartedly support Prof. Eichhoffï¿½s sentiment: ï¿½The Berlin Wall is no more.

Now let us also put to rest the notionï¿½that John F. Kennedy made a ï¿½most dramatic flubï¿½ whenï¿½he told his audience that ï¿½[he was] a Berlinerï¿½.ï¿½ Final Note Berliners (i.e. citizens of Berlin) have a wonderful sense of humor. For example, they have developed nicknames for many of the notable buildings in their city. Their Congress Hall is the ï¿½pregnant oysterï¿½ and the TV tower is called ï¿½tele-asparagus.ï¿½ In spite of this, when an American raises the ï¿½I am a jelly-filled doughnutï¿½ issue, natives of Berlin, or of Germany as a whole, are confused because they see no reason for any misunderstanding. However, the fact that someone else finds humor in the situation does provide Berlin residents an opportunity for action. So I should not have been too surprised to find a street vendor selling the decal shown below on Berlinï¿½s main street in 1995.

Iï¿½m sure only Americans buy themï¿½passing Germans just stare blankly at the decals and proceed on their way. Decal I purchased from a street vendor on the ï¿½Kuï¿½dammï¿½ (main shopping street) of Berlin in October 1995. ï¿½ Brooks Haderlie. Last updated: 28 May 2014 Footnotes: 1 I spoke with a lady in Schï¿½neberg after the reunification, when the city government had moved back into the ï¿½rotes Rathausï¿½, and she complained ï¿½We used to be the focal point of the world. Now nobody even knows weï¿½re here.ï¿½ 2 Not even 5 months later, Pres. Kennedy would be assassinated; the square around the Schï¿½neberg City Hall was renamed ï¿½John-F.-Kennedy-Platzï¿½ after this tragic event. 3 Newsweek, 18 January 1988: 15. 4 The New York Times, 30 April 1988: 31.

5 Jï¿½rgen Eichhoff. ï¿½ï¿½Ich bin ein Berlinerï¿½: A History and a Linguistic Clarification.ï¿½ Monatshefte 85 (1993): 71-80. 6 For example, in 1985 a book was published in Germany with the title ï¿½Als ich ein Tï¿½rke war. Reportagen,ï¿½ in which the German author dressed and behaved like a guest worker from Turkey in order to find out how such workers were treated in Germany. 7 Jochen Schramke. E-mail on 24 Sep 1998. Subject: Re: Auskunft, bitte. With his permission, I quote: ï¿½Ich bin ein Berlinerï¿½: Diese Version drï¿½ckt die Zugehï¿½rigkeit zu den in Berlin lebenden Menschen aus (ï¿½I BELONG to the people of Berlinï¿½) und ist deswegen die bessere Art, eine Solidaritï¿½t zu bekunden.

Die Mï¿½glichkeit, den Pfannkuchen in diesem Zitat zu sehen, ist zwar von der Semantik her gegeben aber in Berlin unmï¿½glich, da man hier peinlichst vermeidet, den Pfannkuchen als ï¿½Berlinerï¿½ einzukaufen. Diese Assoziation ist also nur von anderen Wessis her mï¿½glich, war aber wegen der Berï¿½hmtheit des Zitats und der Herzlichkeit und Solidaritï¿½t, die in diesem Zitat steckt in der Vergangenheit wenig gebrï¿½uchlich. ï¿½Ich bin Berliner:ï¿½ Diese Version drï¿½ckt VERSTï¿½RKT die Tatsache aus, dass jemand in Berlin geboren oder schon sehr lange ansï¿½ssig ist (ï¿½I am FROM Idahoï¿½). Es wï¿½re im Falle von Kennedy sicherlich der weniger richtige Ausdruck.

Nebenbei habe ich in der jï¿½ngsten Vergangenheit auch schon fragende Blicke erzeugt, wenn ich in Westdeutschland testweise ï¿½Berlinerï¿½ einkaufen wollte. Es scheint, als ob dieser Begriff fï¿½r Pfannkuchen ausstirbt. 8 Eichhoff, Jï¿½rgen. Wortatlas der deutschen Umgangssprachen. Vol. 1. Bern: Francke Verlag. 1977, p. 61. 9 Diethelm Prowe, ï¿½The Making of ein Berliner: Kennedy, Brandt, and the Origins of Detente Policy in Germany.ï¿½ In From the Berlin Museum to the Berlin Wall: Essays on the Cultural and Political History of Modern Germany, edited by David Wetzel. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1996. p. 186, footnote 1.

10 ï¿½The Kennedy Mistranslation Mythï¿½ in Nataly Kelly and Jost Zetzsche, Found in Translation: How Language Shapes Our Lives and Transforms the World, New York: Perigree, 2012, pg. 57-58. BBC ON THIS DAY | 26 | 1963: Kennedy: 'Ich bin ein Berliner' About This Site | Text Only 1963: Kennedy: 'Ich bin ein Berliner' The US President, John F Kennedy, has made a ground-breaking speech in Berlin offering American solidarity to the citizens of West Germany. A crowd of 120,000 Berliners gathered in front of the Sch�neberg Rathaus (City Hall) to hear President Kennedy speak. They began gathering in the square long before he was due to arrive, and when he finally appeared on the podium they gave him an ovation of several minutes. The president had just returned from a visit on foot to one of the Berlin Wall's most notorious crossing points, Checkpoint Charlie.

He was watched from the other side of the border by small groups of East Berliners unable even to wave because of the presence of large groups of the East German People's Police. All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words, 'Ich bin ein Berliner' President John F Kennedy In an impassioned speech, the president told them West Berlin was a symbol of freedom in a world threatened by the Cold War. "Two thousand years ago," he told the crowd, "the proudest boast in the world was 'civis Romanus sum'. "Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is 'Ich bin ein Berliner.'" "Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect," he continued. "But we never had to put up a wall to keep our people in." His speech was punctuated throughout by rapturous cheers of approval.

He ended on the theme he had begun with: "All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words, 'Ich bin ein Berliner.'" After the speech, the mayor of West Berlin, Willi Brandt, spoke out for the citizens of East Germany, saying they would be brought out in a few days to greet the Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, whether they wanted to or not. "But they would much rather be with us, freely gathered here," he said. "We tell them, we will not give up. Berlin is true to those behind barbed wire as to fellow countrymen in the West and friends in the whole world." His words were followed by the tolling of the Freedom Bell from the belfry of the Rathaus in remembrance of those in East Germany. For the first time that day, the massive crowd fell silent. The Real Meaning of Ich Bin ein Berliner - The Atlantic The Atlantic See our Newsletters > The Real Meaning of Ich Bin ein Berliner In West Berlin in 1963, President Kennedy delivered his most eloquent speech on the world stage. The director of the John F.

Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum tells the evocative story behind JFK’s words. Associated Press Print Text Size Other than ask not, they were the most-famous words he ever spoke. They drew the world’s attention to what he considered the hottest spot in the Cold War. Added at the last moment and scribbled in his own hand, they were not, like the oratory in most of his other addresses, chosen by talented speechwriters. And for a man notoriously tongue-tied when it came to foreign languages, the four words weren't even in English. Ich bin ein Berliner. These words, delivered on June 26, 1963, against the geopolitical backdrop of the Berlin Wall, endure because of the pairing of the man and the moment. John F. Kennedy’s defiant defense of democracy and self-government stand out as a high point of his presidency. To appreciate their impact, one must understand the history. After World WarII, the capital of Hitler’s Third Reich was divided, like Germany itself, between the communist East and the democratic West.

The Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev described West Berlin, surrounded on all sides by East Germany, as “a bone in my throat” and vowed to “eradicate this splinter from the heart of Europe.” Kennedy feared that any future European conflict, with the potential for nuclear war, would be sparked by Berlin. At their summit meeting in Vienna in the spring of 1961, Khrushchev warned Kennedy that he would sign a treaty with East Germany restricting Western access to West Berlin. In response, Kennedy announced a major military buildup. In a television address to the nation on July 25, 1961, he described the embattled city as “the great testing place of Western courage and will” and declared that any attack on West Berlin would be viewed as an attack on the United States. The speech had its desired effect. Khrushchev backed down from signing the treaty, even as thousands of East Germans continued crossing into West Berlin in search of freedom. In the early morning of August 13, 1961, the East German government, with Soviet support, sought to put this problem to rest, by building a wall of barbed wire across the heart of Berlin.

Tensions had abated slightly by the time Kennedy arrived for a state visit almost two years later. But the wall, an aesthetic and moral monstrosity now made mainly of concrete, remained. Deeply moved by the crowds that had welcomed him in Bonn and Frankfurt, JFK was overwhelmed by the throngs of West Berliners, who put a human face on an issue he had previously seen only in strategic terms. When he viewed the wall itself, and the barrenness of East Berlin on the other side, his expression turned grim. Kennedy’s speechwriters had worked hard preparing a text for his speech, to be delivered in front of city hall. They sought to express solidarity with West Berlin’s plight without offending the Soviets, but striking that balance proved impossible. JFK was disappointed in the draft he was given. The American commandant in Berlin called the text “terrible,” and the president agreed. So he fashioned a new speech on his own.

Previously, Kennedy had said that in Roman times, no claim was grander than “I am a citizen of Rome.” For his Berlin speech, he had considered using the German equivalent, “I am a Berliner.” Moments before taking the stage, during a respite in West Berlin Mayor Willy Brandt’s office, JFK jotted down a few words in Latin and—with a translator’s help—the German version, written phonetically: Ish bin ein Bearleener. Afterward it would be suggested that Kennedy had got the translation wrong—that by using the article ein before the word Berliner, he had mistakenly called himself a jelly doughnut. In fact, Kennedy was correct. To state Ich bin Berliner would have suggested being born in Berlin, whereas adding the word ein implied being a Berliner in spirit. His audience understood that he meant to show his solidarity. Emboldened by the moment and buoyed by the adoring crowd, he delivered one of the most inspiring speeches of his presidency. “Two thousand years ago, the proudest boast was ‘Civis Romanus sum,’ ” he proclaimed.

“Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is ‘Ich bin ein Berliner!’ ” With a masterly cadence, he presented a series of devastating critiques of life under communism: There are many people in the world who really don’t understand, or say they don’t, what is the great issue between the free world and the communist world. Let them come to Berlin … There are some who say that communism is the wave of the future. Let them come to Berlin … And there are even a few who say that it’s true that communism is an evil system, but it permits us to make economic progress. Lasst sie nach Berlin kommen— let them come to Berlin! Kennedy cast a spotlight on West Berlin as an outpost of freedom and on the Berlin Wall as the communist world’s mark of evil. “Freedom has many difficulties, and democracy is not perfect,” he stated, “but we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in.” He confidently predicted that, in time, the wall would fall, Germany would reunite, and democracy would spread throughout Eastern Europe.

The words rang true not only for the hundreds of thousands of people who were there but also for the millions around the world who saw the speech captured on film. Viewing the video today, one still sees a young statesman—in the prime of his life and his presidency—expressing an essential truth that runs throughout human history: the desire for liberty and self-government. At the climax of his speech, the American leader identified himself with the inhabitants of the besieged city: Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free. When all are free, then we can look forward to that day when this city will be joined as one and this country and this great continent of Europe in a peaceful and hopeful globe. His conclusion linked him eternally to his listeners and to their cause: “All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words Ich bin ein Berliner.”

Question: Complete the John F. Kennedy Quote: "Ich Bin Ein ......"
Answer: Berliner