I have to admit, I don’t know why so many are determined to deny that the use of the indefinite article rendered “Berliner” into an inanimate object, i.e. a jelly doughnut. Correct would have been to say “Ich bin Berliner,” however to have done so would have meant he was claiming to literally be from Berlin. Obviously, JFK was not. He intended to communicate solidarity, but made the mistake that Americans often make in German, in trying to transliterate. It doesn’t work.
I recall attempting to compliment one of my German instructors, back in the day before PC, intending to tell her that the way she was dressed looked nice. What I actually said implied that I had a basis of comparison, between how she looked dressed versus undressed.
German is a very precise language, spoken by very precise people, people who just love their rules and abide by them willingly, enforce them willingly. JFK got a good reception because of his intent, but that did not change the fact that he spoke poorly. It was funny, and they laughed.
Yes, and that's why the line was, "Ich bin ein Berliner," which means, "I am like a Berliner," not literally "I am a Berliner."
That fine distinction doesn't exist in English. Put that fact together with the fact that the noun Berliner also means jellied doughnut, and it was easy to manufacture an urban legend at Kennedy's expense.
According to Anatol Stefanowitsch, a Berlin professor of linguistics:
“The confusion derives from the fact that (in German), you normally express your belonging to a predefined group in a sentence without an article, such as ‘Ich bin Student’ or indeed ‘Ich bin Berliner’,” [Stefanowitsch] said.“The sentence ‘Ich bin Berliner’ is clear and cannot refer to ‘doughnuts’ because that is not a predefined group,” he explained.
Stefanowitsch said the construction with the article “ein” is used when a speaker wants to say that he doesn’t literally belong to the group, Berliners in this case, but rather wants to express that he has something in common with them.
“That is exactly what Kennedy wanted to do — he did not want to claim to actually be a resident of the city of Berlin but rather to say that he shared something with the Berliners, namely their love of freedom,” Stefanowitsch said.