I am a Berliner

On June 26, 1963, President John F. Kennedy of the United States delivered a speech in Berlin. A speech that would become world-famous because of the few German words Kennedy spoke: Ich bin ein Berliner. Kennedy delivered his speech in front of the Rathaus Schöneberg, located on Rudolph-Wilde-Platz. He visited the city to underscore the support of the United States for the Federal Republic of Germany. Almost two years earlier, the German Democratic Republic, the GDR, had begun construction of the Berlin Wall, the separation between East and West Berlin. It was the culmination of the so-called 'Cold War'. The visit was greatly appreciated by the residents of Berlin, especially when Kennedy spoke the famous words: 'Ich bin ein Berliner'. For the inhabitants of Berlin feared that the Russians intended to occupy West Berlin as well. More than 150.000 people listened to the speech. The speech was completely finished when Kennedy indicated he wanted to insert a sentence. He used a part of his speech delivered a year earlier in New Orleans for this purpose. He asked his interpreter, Robert Lochner, to translate a few words into German. The words: 'I am a Berliner'. Kennedy got the idea because of the words he used in New Orleans: 'civis Romanus sum'. Kennedy quickly wrote the sentence on a piece of paper with the following phonetic text above it: ´Ish been ein Bearleener´. On the occasion of Kennedy's visit, philatelic attention was paid by means of special envelopes and special cancellations. Such as the BERLIN 12 cancellation featuring an image of the American coat of arms with the eagle. Kennedy previously visited the then capital of the Federal Republic, Bonn, on June 23, 1963. Afterward, he went to Frankfurt. One year after the violent death of Kennedy on November 22, 1963, two stamps with a value of 40 pfennig were issued in the Federal Republic and in Berlin on November 21, 1964. The stamp with the text Deutsche Bundespost had a mintage of 20 million copies. The stamp with the text Berlin had a mintage of 7 million copies. An image was printed on a first-day cover showing Kennedy standing behind the microphone, with the words "Ich bin ein Berliner" underneath. These words left a huge impression. But some felt that one little word was completely out of place: the word "ein." For a "Berliner" is a type of pastry made of fried yeast dough filled with jam or pastry cream and covered with powdered sugar. Others, however, say that the phrase is correct, because Kennedy meant that he was "one with the people of Berlin." How would Kennedy have delivered his speech if it had taken place in Hamburg? "Ich bin ein…"??? On November 25, 1963, three days after the assassination of President Kennedy, the Rudolph-Wilde-Platz was renamed John-F.-Kennedy-Platz.