Ich Bin Ein Berliner - ushistoryatlas.com

1 Page1of2 NYSTROMHERFFJONESEDUCATIONDIVISIONUSH is to ryA omPrimarySourcesamproudtocometothiscitya s the gu est of your dist in guish edMay or, wh o ha s sy mb olizedth ro ug houtthe worldthe figh ti ng spiri t of WestBerlin. An d I am proud andI am pr oud to visi t theFederalRepublicwith you rdis tin guish edChancello rwh o fo r so manyyearshas committed Germany todem ocra cy and fr eedomand pro gress,and to co me here in the company of myfellowAmerican,General Cla y, wh o who has beenin thi s ci ty duri ng its grea tmo ments of cr isis and will comeag ain if ev er tho usan d yea rs ag o twothou san d year s ago , th e pro udestboast was"civi s Romanussum.

2 " To day, in the wo rl d of freedom, the proudestboast is "Ichbi n ein Ber li ner."(I ap prec iate my interpretertranslatin g my German.)Th ere ar e man y peoplein the wo rld who reallydon 't un der st and,or saytheydo n' t, whatis the grea t issuebetweenth e free wo rl d an d the Co mmunistworl themcometo ere ar e somewho say there ar e somewho say that co mmunism is thewaveof the futu themcometo d th ere ar e so me who sa y, in Europeand elsewhere, we can wo rk wit hthe themcometo d th ere ar e ev en a few who say that it is true that co mmunism is an ev ilsy stem.

3 Bu t it per mits us to mak e ec ono mic pro ss ' sie nac h Berli n ko mm lly Brandt,who hadbe en May or of We st Be rlinduring the buil di ng of theWall (andhadcritic ize dthe U. S. fo r no t sto pp in gthe co nstructi on ). Six yearslat er , he wasel ec tedChancel lor of We stGer manyandin 1971 hewo n the Nob el PeacePr ize .Federal Rep ub li cTheFe deralRep ub lic ofGer manywas the off ici alnameof We st Germ an y. Itis the off ici al nam e of(un ited)Ger ma ny to dayaswe cell orKo nradAdenauer, whowaslar gel y res ponsib le forestablis hin g democrac y inWestGer manyafte r Wo rldWarII.

4 General Cl ayLu ciu s Cl ay , retir ed,fo rmermi litarygo vern or ofAmeric an-occup ie dGer many. Heorgan iz edthe Berl in Airl ift in1948 1949. Clay hadalsobe en sent to Berlin in 1961as a sp ec ial rep rese ntativ eandhador der ed . for ce sto standthe ir grou nd indefense of the is Roman us sumLat in: I am a Romanciti June26, 1963 Place West Ber lin, Wes t Ger many (surroundedby East Germany)Typ e of So urc e Spee chAu th or Pr es ide nt John F. Kenne dyCon te xt West Ber lin, the are as of the city oc cupiedby the Uni ted St ates, Bri tain,andFra nce, ha d be en an easy me ans of es capefromCommunist East Ge August196 1, the Sovi et Uni on and East Germanybuilta 96-m ile wallar oundthe ci ty to pre ven t esc apes,prov oki ng a dangerous crisis that nearlyle d to a wa r.

5 By 196 3 the crisis was ov er, but the Ber lin Wall rem ai ne d asym bol of Communi st oppressi on and the div isionof dentKe nnedyvis it ed We st Be rlin to re mindthe Germanstha t the UnitedStateswouldnot aba ndonits commitmentsto defendthemagainstthe th em cometo eed om ha s ma ny difficultiesan d democracyis not perfect. But we hav enever had to put a wall up to keep our peo ple in to prev ent th em fro m lea vi ngus. I wantto say on behalf of my countrymenwho live man y mi les aw ay on theother si de of the Atla ntic,who are far di sta nt from yo u, that they take thegreatest prid e, th at theyhav e beenable to sha re withyou, ev en from a di stance,th e stor y of the last 18 yea rs.

6 I know of no town,no cit y, that has beenbesi egedfo r 18 ye ar s th at still liveswithth evit ali tyan d the forc e, an d the hope,an d thedetermin ationof the city of West Ber lin .Whilethe wall is the mo st ob viousand vivid dem onst rati on of the fai luresof the Communist sy stem forall the worldto see wetake no sati sf ac tio n in it;fo r it is , as yo ur Ma yor has said,an offensenot onlyagainst histo ry but anoffense againsthu man ity, sepa ratingfamilies,div idi ng husbands an d wives andbro thersan d sist ers, and div idin g a peo ple wh o wish to be jo ined to geth t is what is true of th is city is tr ue of Germany: Real,last in g peac e inEu ro pe can neve r be assuredas lon g as one Germanout of four is den ied theelemen tary rightof free men,and th at is to makea free choi ce.

7 In 18 year s ofpeacean d go od fa ith, this gen era tion of Germans has earn ed the ri ght to befr ee, in clu din g the rightto uniteth eir familiesand th eir nat io n in lasti ng peace,withgoo d will to all peo u live in a defendedislan d of fr eedom,but yourli fe is part of the mai let me ask you , as I close,to lift youreyes beyo nd th e dan gers of today,to thehop es of to mor row, bey ond th e freedommerely of this city of Berli n, or yourco untr y of Ger ma ny, to the advance of freedomev eryw here,bey on d the wa ll toth e day of peac e withjustice,beyondyour selv es and oursel ves to al l eed om is ind ivisible,and whenone manis en slav ed, all are not all ar e fre e, thenwe lo ok can lookforw ard to that day when this city willbe joi ned as one and this country and this greatContinen t of Europein apeaceful and hop eful en th at day fin all y comes,as it wil l.

8 The peopleofWes t Berlincan tak e sob er satisfactionin the fact that th ey were in the fron tli nes fo r almost two dec all fr ee men,wherevertheyma y live, are ci ti zen s of Berl in .And , ther efo re, as a free man , I ta ke pri de in the wo rds "Ich bi n ei nBe rl in er ."USHi storyA tl as. co mPrimarySourcespage2of2 NYSTROMHERFFJONESEDUCATIONDIVISIONIch bin ei n Berl man:I am a Berlin tence literal lytranslatesas I am apas try [cal led a Ber line r] , alt hou gh its in te ndedmeaning waspe rfect ly clearto the Ge si e na ch Berl inkomm en.

9 Ger man:Let themcometoBe rl by en em y fo rc esvit ali tyli vel ine ss