Interview: 'Despite fear, we should focus on the positives'Ich Bin Ein Berliner

Deutsche Welle ^ | 22 December 2016 | Gabriel Borrud, Frank FurediSteely Tom

[Steely Tom]

Remember all the snarky comments about how JFK made a fool of himself when he told millions of Germans Ich bin ein Berliner back in 1963?

[Liberty Valance]

The Heimatdamisch: Highway to Hell

[Pelham]

“Afterward it would be suggested that Kennedy had got the translation wrong—that by using the article ein before the word Berliner, he had mistakenly called himself a jelly doughnut. In fact, Kennedy was correct. To state ‘Ich bin Berliner’ would have suggested being born in Berlin, whereas adding the word ‘ein’ implied being a Berliner in spirit. His audience understood that he meant to show his solidarity.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/08/the-real-meaning-of-ich-bin-ein-berliner/309500/

[LouieFisk]

I got it. It just wasn’t all that hilarious, sorry.

[RegulatorCountry]

Looks like a jelly doughnut to me, here's one from Krispy Kreme:

[dfwgator]

Now that’s some awesome right there.

[Jeff Chandler]

"Ich bin ein Frankfurter."

[Steely Tom]

Last week I watched this very moving History Channel documentary entitled Air America: The CIA's Secret Airline.

According to that documentary, the helicopter in that picture was owned and operated by the CIA, not the military (which explains its odd livery).

[Safetgiver]

They call them krapfen!....That is what I call our current President.

[Steely Tom]

A Berliner is a type of jelly doughnut. Kennedy’s use of the indefinite article “ein” changed the meaning from the intended “I am a resident of Berlin” to “I am a Berliner,” which is in fact a type of jelly doughnut, all the recent attempts to discredit this and rehabilitate the speech notwithstanding.

Well I guess the Germans in the picture also think of themselves as jelly doughnuts.

[shibumi]

Carter was really more of a Schweinshaxe.

[The Antiyuppie]

I am a jelly doughnut.

[LouieFisk]

Berliners knew what he said. Just as we would know what somebody meant if they said a surfer was being a “hot dog”. To Berliners it would sound bizarre, but not to Americans.
Look at the photos in this post.

[dfwgator]

I know a little German.

[RegulatorCountry]

They can be a stout people, especially with a good diet of dairy, corn and confections. Just look at our own midwest.

[RegulatorCountry]

Was the giggling of the crowd all made up? I don’t think so. I’ve heard this all my life. Kennedy was a Democrat. If he’d been a Republican, I could believe the media would make up something like this.

[RegulatorCountry]

I suspect they’ve adopted the phrase due to it being so infamous, because it’s certainly incorrect for an actual citizen of Berlin. Germans being as they are so utterly terrified of being incorrect in any matter, it has to be.

[PGR88]

Yes, but this his how Muslims see them now.

[LouieFisk]

You got a video of the crowd “giggling”? You don’t think Germans know their own language. If someone is talking about Obama being weak and calls him a “creampuff” do you think the are speaking literally?

[RegulatorCountry]

I know they know their own language. Knowing what Kennedy "meant" doesn't negate the fact that what he actually said meant he was a jelly doughnut. Such wordplay is the source of much humor in any language. I speak German, by the way, spend a summer session in Trier. How about you?

[LouieFisk]

I'm getting hungry, dang it!