In 1963 then US President John Fitzgerald Kennedy went to Germany for a state visit. On June 26, in front of hundreds of thousands of citizens of West Berlin, he delivered one of the speeches most famous in history: «Today, in the free world, the greatest pride is to say “Ich bin ein Berliner!”», “I am a Berliner”.
When Kennedy spoke, one of the toughest confrontations between the United States and the Soviet Union, the Cuban missile crisis, had just ended, and the famous Wall that divided the city had been built just under two years ago. The day of the speech was also the fifteenth anniversary of the start of the airlift organized after the Soviets closed the access routes to the area controlled by the United States, United Kingdom and France. And Kennedy’s visit, in that context, was particularly awaited.
The division of Berlin between the sectors occupied by the allied winners of the war, France, the United Kingdom and the United States, and an area controlled by the Soviet Union was decided after the end of the Second World War. Throughout the first part of the Cold War, the long phase of hostilities between the Soviet Union and the United States following the Second World War, Berlin was the point of greatest tension between the two blocs. One of the most critical episodes was the closure of the Soviet-imposed land access to the Allied-controlled area, which began on June 24, 1948. Until then, the livelihoods of the population of West Berlin, which was an entirely surrounded enclave by the Soviets, had been guaranteed by a railway and road “corridor” through the territories under the jurisdiction of the USSR.
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The Soviet bloc’s goal was to force the Allies out of Berlin, but the response was to create the largest airlift in history. The first few weeks were difficult, with many casualties and just enough supplies. As the months went by more and more planes, and bigger and bigger planes, arrived at West German bases. In September, two months after the start of the airlift, the American and British air forces had arrived to deliver to West Berlin the 5,000 tons of supplies that had been deemed necessary at the start of the operation. The success of the airlift, still much remembered in the city by plaques and monuments, forced the Soviet Union to lift the blockade in May 1949.
When Kennedy arrived in Berlin in the summer of 1963, one of the toughest diplomatic crises between the United States and the Soviet Union had just ended: the Cuban missile crisis. It began on October 16, 1962, when the president was informed, with photographic evidence, that the Soviet Union was building bases in Cuba to launch nuclear missiles capable of striking the United States. It ended on October 28, when by decision of Nikita Khrushchev, leader of the Communist Party, the Soviet Union withdrew the missiles. In between there were 13 days of very high political and military tension, in which nuclear conflict was not only threatened, but very close. In that context, secret diplomatic negotiations and the identification of a solution that allowed both parties to reduce tension, maintaining the appearance of a conclusion without winners or losers, were decisive.
Alongside this climate of dialogue, which prompted Kennedy’s advisers to write a speech in low and peaceful tones for his visit to Berlin, there was another issue which pushed instead in the opposite direction. Just under two years before Kennedy arrived in Berlin, the East German government had built what would later become known as the Wall, a barbed wire and later concrete barrier that followed the border of West Berlin, encircling it like a belt. At the time, the United States was accused of not responding hard enough to the construction, and there were also many protest demonstrations in West Berlin.
When Kennedy arrived in Germany in 1963, its inhabitants associated the visit with a hope of freedom and interpreted it as a sign that the United States had not abandoned them. Prior to his speech, Kennedy drove through West Berlin in an open car in front of hundreds of thousands of Berliners, some of whom were holding banners reading “When Will the Wall Fall?”
President Kennedy as he parades through West Berlin on June 26, 1963. In the car, center, West Berlin Mayor Willy Brandt, right, West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer (AP Photo)
After a stop at the Brandenburg Gate and Checkpoint Charlie, where for 16 hours, from October 27 to 28, 1961, US and Soviet tanks faced each other on both sides of Berlin, Kennedy arrived at the Schöneberg City Hall around 1pm.
President Kennedy visits Checkpoint Charlie in West Berlin, June 26, 1963 (AP Photo)
The president first thanked General Lucius D. Clay, in charge of the airlift. And the crowd cheered him. Then, at the climax of the speech, and repeating the last sentence again at the end, the president said:
Two thousand years ago, the greatest pride was being able to say civis romanus sum. Today, in the free world, the greatest pride is to say “Ich bin ein Berliner!”
It is not clear whether the first version of the speech already contained the phrase “Ich bin ein Berliner”. Some collaborators said that she had been inserted even before starting the trip, while others said they had seen her in the version of the speech prepared the previous day. Others still claim that Kennedy asked how to translate “I am a Berliner” minutes before the speech and that he wrote down the pronunciation.
The manuscript with the June 26 speech. At the bottom right you can see the annotations with the transcription of the pronunciation of “Ich bin ein Berliner”.
In any case, Kennedy almost completely neglected the prepared speech and spoke off the cuff. He did not use prudent or conciliatory tones, but harshly criticized the Soviet Union, East Germany and communism. He exalted the spirit of the citizens of West Berlin, arousing the applause of the approximately 250,000 spectators.
In another part of the speech delivered in German, but much less cited, referring to those who believed that it was possible to dialogue with the Communists, he said “Lass’ sie nach Berlin kommen”, “Let them come to Berlin”. It was also the sentence criticized a few days after the visit by Nikita Khrushchev, leader of the Soviet Union, who understood it as a clear refusal of dialogue.
“There are many people in the world who don’t understand, or who say they don’t understand, what the big difference is between the free world and the communist world. Let them come to Berlin.
There are some who say, there are some who say that communism is the wave of progress. Let them come to Berlin.
There are some who say, in Europe as elsewhere, that we can work with the Communists. Let them come to Berlin.
And there are also some who say that yes, communism is an evil system, but it allows economic progress.
Lass’ sie nach Berlin kommen. Let them come to Berlin.”
After several passages in which he explicitly criticized the construction of the Wall, Kennedy concluded his speech, saying:
“Freedom is indivisible and when one man is enslaved, no one is free. When everyone is free (…) when that day finally comes, and it will, the people of West Berlin will be proud that they have been at the front for nearly two decades. Every free man, wherever he lives, is a citizen of Berlin. And, therefore, as a free man, I am proud to say “Ich bin ein Berliner”».
In the years following the speech there was controversy over the literal meaning of Kennedy’s words. In the spy novel Berlin Game by writer Len Deighton, one of the characters explains that Kennedy didn’t actually say “I’m a Berliner”, but “I’m a donut”. This error was due to the indefinite article “ein” placed before “Berliner”. In German, the definite article before citizenship is not usually used.
The crowd, about 250,000 people, during Kennedy’s speech on June 26, 1963 (AP Photo)
The comic side stemmed from the fact that Berliner in northern Germany it is the name of the dessert which in most of Italy is called donut and in northern Italy and southern Germany it is called donuts. In the review of the novel the New York Times he took Kennedy’s mistake for granted, as if it were an established fact: in the following years, many newspapers and television stations broadcast this version.
In reality, exactly as in Italian, the use of the indefinite article before citizenship is not formally incorrect and, as they argued several German-speaking teachers and other native speakers, it is unlikely that faced with such a clear context, someone, on June 26, 1963, could have even for a second thought that Kennedy had said “I am a donut”.