Ich bin ein Berliner

I did some historic research when I came across the famous John F. Kennedy speech in West Berlin from June 26, 1963 again where JFK said “Ich bin ein Berliner”.

I also came across a video that was supposed to be "funny".

However, the video is not, because the whole premise the joke is based on is wrong. In addition, the StumbleUpon flags for some of the normal video links showed as category "humor".



I did not understand what "funny" incident he referred to when somebody asked me about this "running joke" for the first time several years back.

I learned then what obviously caused the amusement by some people. I do not know where they got the info from, but that somebody did probably not like JFK (I suspect Republican mischief here).

May be even a German from somewhere else in Germany than Berlin, who does not like Berlin (I suspect a Bavarian here, because Bavarians and Prussians have a long history of not liking each other). A Bavarian Republican would fit the profile perfectly. Ouch, there are a lot of them, because by a twist of fate are the majority of Bavarians very conservative.

Okay, I was just kidding regarding the suspicion of Republicans or Bavarians, but the fact is that somebody got it all wrong and that wrong information found its way through the heads of many Americans to this date.

Now let me clarify and bust this urban myth about what JFK said and what he meant.

"Ich bin ein Berliner" means, "I am a Berliner", which is understood in Berlin at least as "I am a guy from Berlin" and not "I am a stupid filled donut".

I think that I am an authority on that as somebody who was born and raised in Berlin, Germany who lived there the first 25 years of my life.

The filled donut others call a "Berliner" are the Berliner calling a "Pfannkuchen". "Pfannkuchen" is for others what you call "pan cakes" in English. The Berliner calls "pan cakes" "Eierkuchen", which translates to "egg cake(s)". Why is that? I do not know, I guess nobody likes to be called a food, especially a food that is a desert and soft and ... sissy. You know what I mean.

The Wiener, which is somebody from Vienna, also does not call the sausage we in Berlin call a "Wiener" that way. I do not know what they call it, maybe they call it "Frankfurter" and I am sure that this is not what the Frankfurter calls it (I think they also call it "Wiener").

Furthermore, use your brains. If JFK would have made a mistake, said it wrong, and embarrassed himself, what would the reaction of the crowd have been? Silence? Maybe, Laughter? Also possible. Cheer and Applause? Very unlikely.

Videos like this one are absolutely unnecessary and the stupid person who did it should be ashamed of himself.



I hope this settles this.
Cheers!
Carsten aka Roy/SAC and yes, Ich bin auch ein Berliner!