place

Ich bin ein Berliner

1960s in West Berlin1963 in West Germany1963 in international relations1963 in politics1963 neologisms
1963 speechesAC using state parameter: expandedAC with 0 elementsAnti-communist terminologyBerlin WallCold War speechesGerman words and phrasesGermany–Soviet Union relationsGermany–United States relationsJune 1963 events in EuropePolitical catchphrasesPolitical quotesPresidency of John F. KennedySoviet Union–United States relationsSpeeches by John F. KennedyUnited States–West Germany relationsUse mdy dates from November 2012
Ich bin ein Berliner Speech (June 26, 1963) John Fitzgerald Kennedy trimmed.theora
Ich bin ein Berliner Speech (June 26, 1963) John Fitzgerald Kennedy trimmed.theora

"Ich bin ein Berliner" (German pronunciation: [ɪç ˈbɪn ʔaɪn bɛɐ̯ˈliːnɐ]; "I am a Berliner") is a speech by United States President John F. Kennedy given on June 26, 1963, in West Berlin. It is one of the best-known speeches of the Cold War and among the most famous anti-communist speeches. Twenty-two months earlier, East Germany had erected the Berlin Wall to prevent mass emigration to West Berlin. The speech was aimed as much at the Soviet Union as it was at West Berliners. Another phrase in the speech was also spoken in German, "Lasst sie nach Berlin kommen" ("Let them come to Berlin"), addressed at those who claimed "we can work with the Communists", a remark at which Nikita Khrushchev scoffed only days later. The speech is considered one of Kennedy's finest, delivered at the height of the Cold War and the New Frontier. 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 to an audience of 120,000 on the steps 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 used the phrase twice in his speech, including at the end, pronouncing the sentence with his Boston accent and reading from his note "ish bin ein Bearleener", which he had written out using English orthography to approximate the German pronunciation. He also used the classical Latin pronunciation of civis romanus sum, with the c pronounced [k] and the v as [w]. For decades, competing claims about the origins of the "Ich bin ein Berliner" overshadowed the history of the speech. In 2008, historian Andreas Daum provided a comprehensive explanation, based on archival sources and interviews with contemporaries and witnesses. He highlighted the authorship of Kennedy himself and his 1962 speech in New Orleans as a precedent, and demonstrated that by straying from the prepared script in Berlin, Kennedy created the climax of an emotionally charged political performance, which became a hallmark of the Cold War epoch.There is a widespread misconception that Kennedy accidentally said he was a Berliner, a German doughnut specialty. This is an urban legend, including the belief that the audience laughed at Kennedy's use of this expression.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Ich bin ein Berliner (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Ich bin ein Berliner
John-F.-Kennedy-Platz, Berlin Schöneberg

Geographical coordinates (GPS) Address Nearby Places
placeShow on map

Wikipedia: Ich bin ein BerlinerContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 52.484932 ° E 13.344395 °
placeShow on map

Address

Rathaus Schöneberg

John-F.-Kennedy-Platz 1
10825 Berlin, Schöneberg
Germany
mapOpen on Google Maps

Ich bin ein Berliner Speech (June 26, 1963) John Fitzgerald Kennedy trimmed.theora
Ich bin ein Berliner Speech (June 26, 1963) John Fitzgerald Kennedy trimmed.theora
Share experience

Nearby Places

Berlin-Schöneberg station
Berlin-Schöneberg station

Berlin-Schöneberg (in German Bahnhof Berlin-Schöneberg) is a railway station in the district of Schöneberg, in the city of Berlin, Germany. It is a two-level exchange station serving the Wannseebahn suburban and the Ringbahn circular lines of the Berlin S-Bahn, with the lower level serving the Wannseebahn and the upper level the Ringbahn. The station lies just south of the Dominicusstraße and Sachsendamm streets, where local bus stops allow changing between S-Bahn and busses. The Schöneberg station was opened on 1 March 1933 as a two-level exchange station between the Wannseebahn suburban line and the Berlin Ringbahn circular railway, in the course of the electrification of the Wannseebahn suburban line. Its Ringbahn level replaced the older Ebersstraße station on the Ringbahn, which was located slightly further west. The entry of the closed station was kept as entry to the western end of the Ringbahn platform of the new exchange station.The closure of the Ebersstraße station gave room for the building of the new Berlin Innsbrucker Platz station, opened on 1 July 1933, further west, on the Schloßstraße - Hauptstraße - Potsdamer Straße thoroughfare, with direct connection to the Schöneberg underground U-Bahn. With the opening of this new Schöneberg station, the old Schöneberg station which was located just north of the bridge which is now called Julius-Leber-Brücke was renamed to Kolonnenstraße; close to the site of the Berlin Julius-Leber-Brücke station.