Do you dispute these points made in the Smithsonian piece?
“...What is more… ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’ is not only correct but the one and only correct way of expressing in German what the President intended to say,” he wrote.
While it is true that a Berliner is a word for jelly donut, it’s not a term that was used in the area surrounding Berlin, which preferred the word Pfannkucken...”
Bottom line... the jelly doughnut story was fake news. The fact that it’s widely believed does not make it any less fake.
Granted, no one would have thought it meant “a donut”.
I have had this discussions with native Germans, so I will dismiss the Smithsonian (Motto: Often wrong, never in doubt) article. I am not saying it is wrong, but if I enter the following expression in google translate:
I am a Berliner
I am Berliner
it translates as
Ich bin Berliner
Ich bin Berliner
no distinction.
Same with
I am an American
I am American
Ich bin Amerikaner
Ich bin Amerikaner
no distinction.
use of the indefinite article is strained, unnatural but not wrong.
I spent 18 months in Germany, and speak a little German. To my ear (not at all native) “Ich bin ein Amerikaner” sounds off, wrong. One indicates nationality with an adjective, not a noun. Amerikaner is both an adjective and a noun.