JFK: The speech that gave a city hope. (WW2, influence, president)

[Baldrick]

An interesting article on an important moment.

BBC News - John F Kennedy: How 'Ich bin ein Berliner' gave a city hope

President John F Kennedy's "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech was a message of solidarity to West Berlin at the height of the Cold War. Some 50 years on, previously unseen photographs of his visit to the city have the power to recreate the drama of the moment.
There's no doubt that Kennedy's speech was one of the great speeches of history.
It's hard to imagine those pressured times now, but 50 years ago the world was divided into two blocs of East and West, each with an arsenal of nuclear rockets pointed at the other.
The atomic battleground would be Europe, and Berlin was its centre.

An interesting side note of the article is a reference to an oft quoted part of JFKs speech.

Did he, by inserting the word "ein" into "Ich bin Berliner" - the normal, conversational way of saying "I am a Berliner" - unintentionally say he was a jam donut?
This claim has often been made, but Berliners of the human variety will tell you that a jam donut in Berlin is not called a Berliner (though it is in the south of the country), so on the day nobody laughed. And anyway, the added word "ein" can be used here to add emphasis.

[pgm123]

It was definitely important. I would argue his American University speech was more important, though.

[nightlysparrow]

This is my own take, but I thought it also symbolized a sort of unspoken forgiveness thing for WWII, which the ashamed German people really responded to.

[NJGOAT]

Originally Posted by nightlysparrow

This is my own take, but I thought it also symbolized a sort of unspoken forgiveness thing for WWII, which the ashamed German people really responded to.

That's how the Germans saw it. They saw it as affirmation that we were moving past WW2 and that Germany and in particular West Berlin, were firmly in the "western camp" and sphere of influence.