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KENNEDY ADDRESSES THE PEOPLE OF WEST
BERLIN
Ich bin ein Berliner
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John F. Kennedy.
Go here for more about
JFK's Ich bin ein Berliner Speech.
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Berlin Wall.
It follows the full text transcript of
John F. Kennedy's Ich bin ein Berliner speech, delivered
in the Rudolph Wilde Platz, West Berlin - June 26, 1963.
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I am proud to come
to this city as the guest of your distinguished
Mayor, who has symbolized throughout the world
the fighting spirit of West Berlin. |
And I am proud to
visit the Federal Republic with your
distinguished Chancellor who for so many years
has committed Germany to democracy and freedom
and progress, and to come here in the company of
my fellow American, General Clay, who has been
in this city during its great moments of crisis
and will come again if ever needed.
Two thousand years ago the proudest boast was
civis Romanus sum. Today, in the world of
freedom, the proudest boast is "Ich bin ein
Berliner."
I appreciate my interpreter translating my
German!
There are many people in the world who really
don't understand, or say they don't, what is the
great issue between the free world and the
Communist world. Let them come to Berlin. There
are some who say that communism is the wave of
the future. Let them come to Berlin. And there
are some who say in Europe and elsewhere we can
work with the Communists. Let them come to
Berlin. And there are even a few who say that it
is true that communism is an evil system, but it
permits us to make economic progress. Lass' sie
nach Berlin kommen. Let them come to Berlin.
Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is
not perfect, but we have never had to put a wall
up to keep our people in, to prevent them from
leaving us. I want to say, on behalf of my
countrymen, who live many miles away on the
other side of the Atlantic, who are far distant
from you, that they take the greatest pride that
they have been able to share with you, even from
a distance, the story of the last 18 years. I
know of no town, no city, that has been besieged
for 18 years that still lives with the vitality
and the force, and the hope and the
determination of the city of West Berlin. While
the wall is the most obvious and vivid
demonstration of the failures of the Communist
system, for all the world to see, we take no
satisfaction in it, for it is, as your Mayor has
said, an offense not only against history but an
offense against humanity, separating families,
dividing husbands and wives and brothers and
sisters, and dividing a people who wish to be
joined together.
What is true of this city is true of
Germany--real, lasting peace in Europe can never
be assured as long as one German out of four is
denied the elementary right of free men, and
that is to make a free choice. In 18 years of
peace and good faith, this generation of Germans
has earned the right to be free, including the
right to unite their families and their nation
in lasting peace, with good will to all people.
You live in a defended island of freedom, but
your life is part of the main. So let me ask you
as I close, to lift your eyes beyond the dangers
of today, to the hopes of tomorrow, beyond the
freedom merely of this city of Berlin, or your
country of Germany, to the advance of freedom
everywhere, beyond the wall to the day of peace
with justice, beyond yourselves and ourselves to
all mankind.
Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is
enslaved, all are not free. When all are free,
then we can look forward to that day when this
city will be joined as one and this country and
this great Continent of Europe in a peaceful and
hopeful globe. When that day finally comes, as
it will, the people of West Berlin can take
sober satisfaction in the fact that they were in
the front lines for almost two decades.
All free men, wherever they may live, are
citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free
man, I take pride in the words "Ich bin ein
Berliner."
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