Evewn though I speak very little German, I have always had a problem with Kennedy’s so-called gaffe. While “Berliner” is a type of doughnut, it also means “citizen of Berlin.” I severly doubt that those who heard his speech assumed he was talking about doughnuts.
As I read somewhere once, would a crowd at Madison Square Garden mistake Obama saying, “I am a New Yorker,” as meaning Obama is a pretensious magazine?
I think it would be more like if Sarkozy came to NYC and said “Today I am a Yankee.” It would be hard not to imagine him in the evil pinstripes.
When I was stationed in West Germany in 1975 my German friends told a joke about digging up JFK for another autopsy and discovering that he was filled with jelly. A German would say, “I am from Berlin”. Ich bin ein berliner” really means “I am a jelly donut”. However, the Germans loved Kennedy’s solidarity and intention to stand up to the commies despite their mirth at the minor language gaffe. Compare Kennedy’s courage and leadership to the craven Left that now says that tiny Georgia “provoked” Russia when the Russkies had planned the invasion for months and used the South Ossetian militia to start the fighting. JFK would be a Republican today.
Wikipedia says that if you are just stating that you’re from Berlin as a matter of fact, “Ich bin Berliner” is right. If you want to speak figuratively, to say that you’re spiritually a Berliner, you can — even have to — put an “ein” before Berliner. People got what he was saying. Supposedly, too, the jelly donut is called a Berliner in other parts of the country, but not in the city itself.
I don’t speak German, but my understanding is that to say that one is “of Berlin” one should say “Ich bin Berliner” without the “ein.” It’s as if one wanted to say, in English, that one is from Denmark: Surely one would say “I am Danish,” not “I am a Danish,” if one wanted to avoid being confused for a pastry.
Obama is a pretentious magazine.
Or a low-brow one like Crackhead Aficionado or Secret Bisexual Weekly.