Ich bin ein Berliner

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"Ich bin ein Berliner" ("I am a Berliner") is a quotation from a June 26, 1963 speech by U.S. President John F. Kennedy in West Berlin. He was underlining the support of the United States for democratic West Germany shortly after the Soviet-supported Communist state of East Germany erected the Berlin Wall as a barrier to prevent movement between East and West.

The speech is considered one of Kennedy's best, and a notable moment of the Cold War. It was a great morale boost for West Berliners, who lived in an enclave deep inside East Germany and feared a possible East German occupation. Speaking from the balcony of Rathaus Schöneberg, Kennedy said,

Two thousand years ago the proudest boast was civis romanus sum [I am a Roman citizen]. Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is 'Ich bin ein Berliner'… 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!'

Kennedy came up with the phrase at the last moment, as well as the idea to say it in German. Kennedy asked his interpreter Robert H. Lochner to translate "I am a Berliner" only as they walked up the stairs at the Rathaus (City Hall). With Lochner's help, Kennedy practiced the phrase in the office of then-Mayor Willy Brandt, and in his own hand made a cue card with phonetic spelling.(The cue card) According to Lochner, Kennedy's National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy felt the speech had gone "a little too far", and the two revised the text for a softer stance before repeating the speech at the Free University later that day.^[1]

This message of defiance was aimed as much at the Soviets as it was at Berliners, and was a clear statement of U.S. policy in the wake of the construction of the Berlin Wall. However, Kennedy was criticized for making a speech that acknowledged Berlin's status quo as reality.^{[citation needed]} The official status of Berlin at the time was that it was under joint occupation by the four Allied powers, each with primary responsibility for a certain zone. Up to this point the U.S. had asserted that this was its status, even though the actual situation was far different. Kennedy's speech marked the first instance where the U.S. acknowledged that East Berlin was part of the Soviet bloc along with the rest of East Germany.

There are commemorative sites to Kennedy in Berlin, such as the John F. Kennedy German-American School Berlin and the John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies of the Free University of Berlin. Also, the public square in front of the Rathaus Schöneberg (where Kennedy made the famous speech) has been named "John-F.-Kennedy-Platz" and there is a small plaque dedicated to Kennedy near the entrance of the building.

Contents 1 Background 2 Jelly doughnut urban legend 3 References in popular culture 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Background

Main article: History of Berlin

Germany's capital, Berlin, was deep within the area controlled after World War II by the Soviet army. Initially governed in four sectors controlled by the United States, United Kingdom, France, and the USSR, tensions of the Cold War escalated until the Soviet forces implemented the Berlin Blockade, which the Western allies relieved with the dramatic airlift.

Afterward, the sectors controlled by the NATO Allies became an effective exclave of West Germany, completely surrounded by East Germany. From 1952, the border between East and West was closed everywhere but Berlin. Hundreds of thousands of East Germans defected to the West via West Berlin, a labour drain that threatened East Germany with economic collapse.

In 1961 the East German government under Walter Ulbricht erected a barbed-wire barrier around West Berlin. It was officially called the antifaschistischer Schutzwall (anti-fascist protective barrier), and the East German authorities argued that it was meant to prevent spies and agents of West Germany (which they considered a fascist state) from crossing into the East. However, it was universally known as the Berlin Wall and the majority opinion was that its primary purpose was to keep East German citizens from escaping to the West. Over a period of months the wall was rebuilt using concrete, and buildings were demolished to create a "death zone" in view of East German guards armed with machine guns. In 1962 the first attempted escape leading to a fatal shooting took the life of Peter Fechter.

The West, including the U.S., was accused of failing to respond forcefully to the erection of the Wall. On July 25, 1961, with the April Bay of Pigs fiasco still fresh, President Kennedy broadcast a Presidential address. Kennedy insisted that America would defend West Berlin, asserting its Four-Power rights, while making it clear that challenging the Soviet presence in Germany was not possible.

[edit] Jelly doughnut urban legend

According to an urban legend that is both completely untrue and practically unknown in Germany,^[2] Kennedy made a slightly embarrassing grammatical error by saying "Ich bin ein Berliner," referring to himself not as a citizen of Berlin, but as a common pastry:

Kennedy should have said "Ich bin Berliner" to mean "I am a person from Berlin." By adding the indefinite article ein, his statement implied he was a non-human Berliner, thus "I am a jelly doughnut".

The legend stems from a play on words with Berliner, the name of a doughnut variant filled with jam or plum sauce that is thought to have originated in Berlin.

In fact, Kennedy's statement is both grammatically correct^[3] and perfectly idiomatic, and cannot be misunderstood in context. The urban legend is prevalent only in English-speaking countries but largely unknown in Germany, where Kennedy's speech is considered a landmark in the country's postwar history.^[4] The indefinite article ein can be and often is omitted when speaking of an individual's profession or residence but is necessary when speaking in a figurative sense as Kennedy did. Since the president was not literally from Berlin but only declaring his solidarity with its citizens, "Ich bin Berliner" would not have been correct.^[5]

The origins of the legend are obscure. One prominent instance of its re-telling was in 1988 when William J. Miller erroneously wrote in an April 30 New York Times article:

What they did not know, but could easily have found out, was that such citizens never refer to themselves as "Berliners." They reserve that term for a favorite confection often munched at breakfast. So, while they understood and appreciated the sentiments behind the President's impassioned declaration, the residents tittered among themselves when he exclaimed, literally, "I am a jelly-filled doughnut."

In fact, the opposite is true: The citizens of Berlin do refer to themselves as Berliner; what they do not refer to as Berliner are jelly doughnuts. While these are known as "Berliner" in other areas of Germany, they are simply called Pfannkuchen (pancakes) in and around Berlin.^[6] Thus the merely theoretical ambiguity went entirely unnoticed by Kennedy's overwhelmingly local audience, as it did in Germany at large. In sum, "Ich bin ein Berliner" was both grammatically and idiomatically the appropriate way to express in German what Kennedy meant to say, which is exactly how Germans have understood and celebrated it since the day it was uttered.^[7]

Although it is completely false, the legend has since been repeated by reputable media, such as the BBC,^[8] The Guardian,^[9] MSNBC,^[10] CNN,^[11] Time magazine,^[12], The New York Times^[13], and in several books about Germany written by English-speaking authors, including Norman Davies.^[14]

As for the creation of the speech, it had been reviewed by journalist Robert Lochner, who was educated in Germany, and had been practiced several times in front of numerous Germans, including Berlin Mayor Willy Brandt. The many video and audio recordings of the event show only enthusiastic applause following the statement. During the speech Kennedy used the phrase twice, ending his speech on it. However, Kennedy did pronounce the sentence with his Boston accent, reading from his note "ish bin ein Bearleener," which he had written out in English phonetics.

[edit] References in popular culture

The phrase and the legend is quoted very often in fiction and popular culture in the United States. Besides a direct quote there exist many variations starting "Ich bin (+ noun)" that is supposed to be understood by the primarily English-speaking audience based on the widespread knowledge of this German phrase and its myth. This is an example of what is referred to as a snowclone.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Text, Audio, Video of Address
• Text of Kennedy's speech (accessed March 29, 2006)
• A German teacher's article on the phrase
• About.com article
• A Berliner expresses amusement at her recollection of the speech, remarking that "in West Germany, 'Berliner' means a pancake..."

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