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THE KENNEDYS MUSEUM BERLIN
Ich bin ein Berliner

The Kennedy Conspiracy is solved! The controversy resolved. The question settled. President John F. Kennedy in 1963 did NOT declare himself to be a doughnut! In the Kennedy legend and lexicon, probably the most famous words spoken by the icononic president in his 1000 days – after the “Ask not what your country can do for you…” inaugural address, were the four word phase he chimed on a visit to the Cold War divided city of Berlin in a speech to cheering crowds at Schöneberg City Hall – “Ich bin ein Berliner!”

In the past few years, a rumor has raged and passed through American culture in revisionist fervor, based on a wag's column in a New York newspaper that the words America’s 35th President John Fitzgerald Kennedy spoke were a grammatical error that was saying - that instead of claiming solidarity with the people of West Berlin, he was saying he was a pastry called a “Berliner”. A visit to the Kennedys Museum in Berlin’s Pariser Platz, within sight of Berlin’s famed Brandenburg gate, will disabuse one of the notion. The officials at the museum which displays over 300 items of intimate Kennedy memorabilia, related to his Berlin visit and the throughout the days of “Camelot” will clarify that the grammar of John Kennedy’s German was not only correct, but a hand written note card shows that he focused on his pronunciation as well. Although there is a kind of pastry cake made in Berlin, pfannkuchen, literally "pancake" filled with sweet marmelade etc., referred to outside the region as a “Berliner”, but within Berlin it was not known as such, so the locals would not understand it that way, though outside of Berlin it might be construed into the cultural joke.

The Kennedys Museum itself in Berlin is an elegant and moving look back into the life of America’s arguably most revered modern president and possibly most tragic family. Consisting of photographs and artifacts of the Kennedy legacy, including rare early romantic photos of John and Jackie Kennedy before the White House years and John Jr. and Caroline romping in the oval office, items and letters of the president, photos of the first family’s trip to Berlin only two years after the wall had been erected, during which President Kennedy was deeply moved by the resilient citizens who had endured the Berlin airlift (see German Technik Museum Berlin) and division of the city, country and families. The museum is located in a corner of the plaza opposite from the Brandenberg Gate at the western end of the famous central boulevard Unter Den Linden, around the corner from Berlin’s Adlon Hotel and a short walk from the glass domed Reichstag capital building. Admission is 7 euros and guided tours in German or English can be arranged. © Bargain Travel Europe

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See Also:

BERLIN DDR MUSEUM

OSTEL - BERLIN’S DDR DESIGN HOSTEL

BERLIN ACTIVE TOURING - SIGHTJOGGING

BERLIN NIGHTLIFE ALL NIGHT PUB CRAWLING

FALL OF BERLIN WALL 20th ANNIVERSARY 2009

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