'Ich Bin ein Berliner': An Indelible Memory of Kennedy's Speech
By Sophie Arts
In the summer of 1963 Kennedy
came to the divided city of Berlin and spoke his famous words "Ich bin
ein Berliner." Fifty years later, the visit of the 35th American
president still shapes the city's collective memory.
Part 1: An Indelible Memory of Kennedy's Speech
A pair of slippers awaits visitors at the entrance of a cozy two-room
apartment in Berlin's Westend district -- the kind one might expect in
one of Berlin's many old palaces and villas. But those looking for any
valuable antiques here will be disappointed. Instead, every inch of wall
space is covered with old photographs. The centerpiece of the
collection is a black-and-white shot of John F. Kennedy waving from an
open limousine.
The day Werner Eckert took the snapshot is still vividly engrained in
his mind. It was one of the most influential events of the 81 year old's
life. On June 26, 1963, the 35th American president came to visit West
Berlin in a demonstration of solidarity with the people living in the
divided city.
"There was never anyone like Kennedy before," Eckert says, recalling
the visit. "You had a feeling you could immediately become friends with
him. He may have been the most powerful man in the world, but his
charisma immediately made you lose any reservations."
Eckert, a former athlete and amateur boxer who looks nothing like his
age, takes great pride in his small collection of Kennedy memorabilia.
When Kennedy came to Berlin in 1963, the young Eckert earned a living
delivering coffee to cafés across the city. The job gave the native
Berliner the chance to slip through barriers erected for the state visit
to see the president three times.
Goose Bumps and Tears
In addition to Eckert's private treasure chest, Berlin is also home
to an official Kennedy museum. "The Kennedys" holds the world's largest
collection of Kennedy memorabilia. Museum director Alina Heinze is only
32 and yet she can recite Kennedy's speech by heart.
"All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin,"
Kennedy's voice booms from the speaker in his thick Boston accent. The
speech plays in a continuous loop on a large screen. Many who witnessed
the president's visit come to the museum to relive the historical
experience. "They often sit in the film room with tears in their eyes,"
says Heinze. "I've seen the speech countless times, but it still gives
me goose bumps every time."
Kennedy visited Berlin a half-century ago, but memories have never
faded. Heinze herself grew up in Berlin hearing stories about the
memorable day. Her parents, who were in high school at the time, also
saw the president speak.
"You can ask anyone who was in Berlin back then if they saw Kennedy,
and most will almost certainly answer with a yes," she says. Half of
Berlin took to the streets to greet Kennedy, with estimates of the crowd
ranging between 1 and 2 million.
"It was a 100 percent unanimous welcome parade," says historian John
Provan, who recently published a book on Kennedy's trip to Germany. "I
can't remember any event of such magnitude for one person to be welcomed
by so many people."
'Things Just Clicked'
For many, last week's visit to Berlin by President Barack Obama
reawakened memories of the historical day. But when one compares the two
events, it also becomes clear just how much has changed over the past
50 years.
When Kennedy came to Berlin, the entire city was encouraged to
welcome the president. School children were given the day off from
school and many businesses remained closed. A half-million people
flooded onto the square in front of Rathaus Schöneberg, the city hall
for the Berlin district. Last week, Obama spoke in front of 4,000
handpicked guests -- many of them politicians. And whereas Kennedy
allowed his open limousine to stop repeatedly so that he could shake
hands with Berliners, Obama stood at the Brandenburg Gate behind
bullet-proof glass. Today's security standards preclude the possibility
of stirring mass events.
Politically, the presidents were at very different junctures. Kennedy
came to the city under extraordinary circumstances. Practically
overnight, the Eastern Bloc had started to build the wall in 1961 that
would divide Berlin for almost 30 years, and only months later Russian
and American tanks had faced off only months later at Checkpoint
Charlie.
"We came closer to war than anyone of us wanted to realize," says
Werner Eckert. "A world war that would have played out on German soil --
and that just 18 years after the war had ended. All these fears
suddenly came alive again." Eckert lost his own father in World War II.
In addition, the traumatic experience of the Berlin blockade of 1949
was still fresh in many peoples' memories. For almost a year, Berlin
residents had been completely cut off from West Germany. West Berlin was
kept alive through the Americans' Berlin Airlift. Increasingly,
however, the people of West Berlin feared the US might abandon the
contested territory in order to prevent a confrontation with the Soviet
Union.
"And then Kennedy came and said these words and they were just the
right words to say," Heinze says. "I think it was a situation where
Kennedy and the circumstances and the people just clicked."
Part 2: Kennedy's 'Pledge of Personal Reponsibility'
But it wasn't just Kennedy's famous line that enthralled Berliners
at the time. Actress Anita Lochner says it was also the way Kennedy
conveyed his emotional words. The daughter of a diplomat, Lochner came
to Berlin as a young girl. Her father Robert was the director of RIAS,
the radio station in the American-occupied sector of Berlin. During the
state visit, he served as Kennedy's translator. Anita was 13 at the
time. The president remained an important topic for the family for some
years to come.
"Kennedy had a very special aura," she says. "There are some people
who walk into a room and everybody is quiet and looks at them. That's
the kind of person he was."
The teenage girl experienced that herself when she went to greet the
president on the street on West Berlin's Clayallee, where the US had its
diplomatic headquarters in the city. When the car stopped, she ran up
with a group of American children and touched Kennedy's back. With tears
in her eyes, she admitted to her mother later that day that she had
fallen in love with the handsome president.
A Daring Move
"How strange it is," Jackie Kennedy wrote in a note to then Berlin
mayor and future chancellor Willy Brandt after her husband's death.
"Sometimes I think that the words of my husband that will be remembered
most were words he did not even say in his own language."
It was only as Kennedy climbed the steps of the Schöneberg Rathaus
and heard the roaring crowds that he decided to say the four words in
German, Lochner recalls. "Then Kennedy and my father went into Willy
Brandt's office to practice that and the rest is history," she says.
Kennedy's decision to change the speech was quite risky. After
pushing a program of détente and peaceful outreach in his American
University speech only two weeks earlier, Kennedy spoke some of the
harshest words ever directed against the Russians in Berlin. Museum
director Heinze believes that the shocking reality of the wall that
separated families and homes truly saddened Kennedy. The fact that he
changed his words after seeing this chilling view gives his speech a
human touch, she says.
Military historian Provan believes that Kennedy had a gut feeling
that this was the right thing to say. "Those four words underscored
Kennedy's pledge of personal responsibility (to ensure Berlin's security
and freedom)," Provan says. "He didn't say the US is a Berliner. He, as
the leader of America and as a man, stood up for his political concept
and actions. That's a daring move."
Today a note card written in Kennedy's handwriting still counts among
the most cherished possessions at Berlin's Kennedy museum. Without it,
the people of Berlin might never have figured out what the president was
actually trying to say. In red ink and with phonetic spelling scrawled
across the page, it reads: "Ish bin ein Bearleener."
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