06/26/2024 – 3:48
On June 26, 1963, US President John F. Kennedy ended a four-day visit to West Germany in Berlin. It was there that he uttered the famous phrase “I am a Berliner!”. The reception for President John F. Kennedy was one of the biggest popular parties in what was then West Berlin. Around 1.5 million people shouted the name of the President of the United States in the streets. Berlin, in addition to being divided since August 1961 by a wall built by the communists, was still embedded within East Germany.
The security of the visit was guaranteed by soldiers from France, the United Kingdom and the United States, Western powers that won the Second World War. Kennedy’s speech, in English, contained four words in German that summarized the meaning of the American leader’s presence in the divided capital.
– Two thousand years ago, the proudest thing anyone could say was “I am a Roman.” Today, the proudest thing anyone in the free world can say is “ich bin ein Berliner!” (I am a Berliner!).
In an open car, Kennedy toured the city and visited its symbols, with a brief stop in front of the wall that divided the city and Checkpoint Charlie, the checkpoint on the way to East Berlin.
During the visit, the head of the US government was accompanied by the then mayor of West Berlin, Willy Brandt (who would later become chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany) and the head of the West German government, Konrad Adenauer, already 87 years old.
Closing his speech, once again, consciously and to express solidarity and hope for the divided German states, Kennedy repeated the famous phrase, in German and loudly:
– Ich bin ein Berliner!
The visit ended with the inclusion of the American president’s name in the city’s golden book.
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