Soon they'll be singing a different tune.
Heh.
I first read that as “Berlin Halt Zimmerman” and I was like.. huh? what’d he do this time?”
Berliners knew what JFK was saying. It’s an urban legend that they thought he was talking about a jelly doughnut or whatever pastry.
In free translation: “Berlin is united”.
Wonder if it’ll all come down to another Berlin Airlift!
President Carter tried to copy Kennedy but he said it from Hamburg.
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.
Big moments are immune to bad grammar. Just as Neil Armstrong.
“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.”
NYT on the subject, from 1988...
http://www.nytimes.com/1988/04/30/opinion/i-am-a-jelly-filled-doughnut.html
I think the difference between
Ich bin Berliner
and
Ich bin ein Berliner
is roughly the same as the difference between
I’m German.
and
I’m a German.
The former sounds more idiomatically correct, but the meaning of either is clear. Like “American”, Berliner can be either an adjective or a noun. As a noun it can mean either an inhabitant of Berlin, or a kind of pastry. The meaning should be clear from the context.
But the distinction isn't absolute in German. The national anthem of Prussia from 1830 to 1840 -- the Preussenlied = Song of Prussia -- begins "Ich bin ein Preuße." = "I am a Prussian."
ich bin ein DEPLORABLE!!!