jfk berlin visit

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When JFK Told West Berliners That He Was One of Them

By: Jesse Greenspan

Updated: April 26, 2023 | Original: June 26, 2013

In June 1963, as the Cold War raged, President John F. Kennedy traveled to Germany to denounce communism and express U.S. support for the people there, whose country had been divvied up after World War II . His address in West Berlin, where he declared "Ich bin ein Berliner," struck a chord with the massive crowd, making it one of his most-remembered speeches.

After World War II , the victorious Allied powers divided Germany into four zones. Three of those—controlled by the United States, the United Kingdom and France, respectively—became democratic West Germany, whereas the one controlled by the Soviet Union became communist East Germany.

Berlin, the former capital, was similarly split despite being located squarely within East Germany’s borders, a situation that rankled the Soviet Union. In June 1948, the USSR cut off all land and water routes between West Berlin and the rest of West Germany in an attempt to gain control over the city. But the United States and its allies were able to overcome this 11-month blockade by airlifting in over 2.3 million tons of food and supplies.

Berlin remained a point of contention between the United States and the Soviet Union when Kennedy took office in January 1961. At a summit that June in Austria, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev threatened the sovereignty of West Berlin and ratcheted up the rhetoric, warning that it was “…up to the U.S. to decide whether there will be war or peace” between the two nations and insisting that as the Cold War heated up, “Force will be met by force.”

“Worst thing in my life,” Kennedy told a New York Times reporter afterwards. “He savaged me.”

Khrushchev then approved the construction of the Berlin Wall in order to prevent any more East Germans from fleeing to the West (an estimated 3.5 million had already done so). Barbed wire went up on August 13, 1961; concrete blocks later replaced it. More turmoil came in October, when Soviet and U.S. tanks rolled to within a few hundred feet of each other at Checkpoint Charlie , the crossing point for diplomats and other non-Germans. The 16-hour standoff, which precipitated worries about a World War III, ended without any shots being fired.

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On June 23, 1963, Kennedy returned to Europe for the first time since sparring with Khrushchev in Austria. He visited Bonn, Cologne and Frankfurt in West Germany, where big crowds chanted his name and waved U.S. flags, before flying into West Berlin on the morning of June 26. On the way over he showed General James H. Polk, the U.S. commandant in Berlin, a draft of the speech he planned to give later that day. “This is terrible, Mr. President,” Polk reportedly said.

Kennedy agreed and began working out a more forceful version in his head as he toured Checkpoint Charlie and other locations around the city. He also inserted a little German, which he wrote phonetically on note cards. Meanwhile, at least 120,000 West Berliners—some estimates place the total as high as 450,000—had gathered in the plaza outside city hall to hear Kennedy speak.

Early in his address, the foreign language-challenged president broke out four German words he had supposedly been practicing for days. “Two thousand years ago the proudest boast was ‘civis Romanus sum,’” Kennedy said. “Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is ‘Ich bin ein Berliner.’” Legend holds that by including the article “ein,” Kennedy had called himself a jelly doughnut. But although speechwriter Ted Sorensen blamed himself for the alleged mistake in a memoir, German linguists maintain that the president used acceptable grammar.

Kennedy went on to lambaste the failures of communism , saying anyone who thought it was the wave of the future should 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,” JFK stated. After praising the people of West Berlin for being at the front lines of the Cold War , he finished up by repeating his soon-to-be famous phrase. “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!’” he exclaimed.

The whole speech lasted only nine minutes. Kennedy then gave another address at the Free University of Berlin before flying to Ireland that evening. “We’ll never have another day like this one, as long as we live,” he reportedly said in reference to the enthusiastic crowds.

Although Kennedy was assassinated that November, his wish for the city to “be joined as one” came true when the Berlin Wall fell in November 1989. To this day he remains an admired figure in Berlin, which is hosting a series of lectures, films and exhibitions coinciding with the 50th anniversary of his visit.

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• great leaders

JFK in Germany, 1963: Rare and Classic Photos

F irst off, let’s get the whole jelly-doughnut fiction out of the way. For decades, people have been chuckling over the oft-repeated “fact” that when he delivered his now-famous speech at Berlin’s Schöneberg city hall in June 1963, John F. Kennedy flubbed the oration’s critical line. Instead of declaring his solidarity with the German people with a rousing, “I am a Berliner!” ( Ich bin Berliner ) — so the story goes — Kennedy instead proclaimed, “I am a jelly doughnut!” ( Ich bin ein Berliner ).

It’s a pretty good story, and it’s even more comical when it’s repeated, as it has been countless times in the subsequent decades, in JFK’s distinctive Boston accent and with his unique cadence. Alas, for comedians and for cocktail-party trivia experts everywhere, Kennedy’s assertion was not only perfectly comprehensible, but positively stirring, to the thousands of Germans who saw his speech live and to the millions of others who heard it on the radio or saw it on TV.

“I am a Berliner!” It might not be as hilarious as the apocryphal jelly-doughnut line — but five decades on, JFK’s simple declaration still feels inspiring.

Here, more than 50 years after Kennedy’s June 1963 speech in Berlin, LIFE.com recalls not only that one historic moment, but the look and the feel — the unprecedented energy — of his trip to Germany. Kennedy drew boisterous and, for the most part, adoring crowds wherever he traveled, and less than two decades after the end of World War II, in a West Germany that was now an American ally, was received as something of a rock star by young and old alike.

[MORE: See the gallery, “Rare Photos From JFK’s 1960 Campaign”]

Staged less than five months before his assassination would stun the world, in a nation ripped apart by competing ideologies and by the brute, concrete symbol of the Cold War — the Berlin Wall — JFK’s triumphant German tour was one of the earliest and most poignant watersheds of the 1960s. As America moved deeper into the decade, and as violence seemed to erupt from every seam in the culture — the terrorist church bombing in Birmingham mere months later; the assassinations of Malcolm X, Dr. King and Robert Kennedy; the war in Vietnam; the Mansons; Altamont and on and on — the promise of a new, re-imagined and perhaps even morally ascendant United States flickered, and faded.

Ben Cosgrove is the Editor of LIFE.com

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Historic Documents

Kennedy's "ich bin ein berliner" speech.

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' sie 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."

• Daniel Webster's "Seventh of March" Speech
• FDR's Infamy Speech
• "Ich bin ein Berliner"

This public-domain content provided by the Independence Hall Association , a nonprofit organization in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, founded in 1942. Publishing electronically as ushistory.org. On the Internet since July 4, 1995.

"There are some who say that Communism is the wave of the future. Let them come to Berlin." --President John F. Kennedy, Berlin, Germany, June 26, 1963

You can hear a selection from John F. Kennedy's speech: AU Format (297K) WAV Format, Windows (297K) AIFF Format, MacIntosh (297K)

The speech was peppered with German and one sentence in Latin, written phonetically on one of the speech cards here. National Archives, John F. Kennedy Library, Boston, Massachusetts

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Will you join us in lighting the way for the leaders of tomorrow?

State visit to europe.

"There are some who say that Communism is the wave of the future. Let them come to Berlin." — President John F. Kennedy, Berlin, Germany, June 26, 1963

About the Exhibit

Ten days after announcing a potential breakthrough in American-Soviet efforts to negotiate a groundbreaking nuclear test ban treaty, President Kennedy departed for Europe with stops in West Germany, Ireland, Great Britain, and Italy. His speeches had been carefully crafted to reassure America's European allies of continued U.S. support against Soviet aggression, while avoiding any provocation that would upset the delicate negotiations with the Soviets. Highlights of this exhibit gallery include film footage, photographs, and artifacts from Ireland that bring President Kennedy's state visits to life.

JFK was not prepared for the overwhelmingly emotional reception he received in West Germany and West Berlin. Throughout his presidency, Kennedy had stayed true to his word to protect West Berlin, and during his visit there, he was hailed as a hero. On June 26, with throngs of cheering people lining the streets, the President toured the city in an open car during which he had his first view of the Berlin Wall. The adoration of the crowds and the desolation of the Wall - and those who lived on the other side - affected him visibly. The visit marked a high point of his presidency and his leadership on the world stage.

From West Germany, the President flew to Ireland. For four days, he traveled the country where he was hailed, honored, and feted, immersed in the historical and literary heritage of Ireland that had helped form him. On his departure, JFK said, "I want to thank you for a visit that has been one of the most moving experiences of my life."