"There are some who say that Communism is the wave of the future. Let them come to Berlin." --President John F. Kennedy, Berlin, Germany, June 26, 1963
You can hear a selection from John F. Kennedy's speech: AU Format (297K) WAV Format, Windows (297K) AIFF Format, MacIntosh (297K)
The speech was peppered with German and one sentence in Latin, written phonetically on one of the speech cards here. National Archives, John F. Kennedy Library, Boston, Massachusetts

The JFK Library Archives: An Inside Look

The JFK Library Archives: An Inside Look

Digitized photographs from president john f. kennedy’s trip to germany.

( A version of this post was published on our previous blog on 12/17/2016 .)

By Laura Kintz, Archivist for Photographic and Textual Digitization

For those interested in President Kennedy’s trip to Germany in June of 1963, we are pleased to say that all White House Photographs documenting that visit are available online .

These photographs, covering June 23 to June 26, 1963, document President Kennedy’s only official trip to what was then a divided Germany. He spent four days in West Germany, also known as the Federal Republic of Germany, inaugurating a 10-day trip to Europe that also included visits to Ireland, England, and Italy. During those four days, the President visited several cities and towns, including Bonn, Cologne, Hanau, Frankfurt, and West Berlin. He delivered remarks, met with government officials, signed cities’ “Golden Books” for distinguished guests, visited with U.S. Embassy employees and members of the U.S. military, and greeted German well-wishers. Occurring during a contentious time in Germany’s history, President Kennedy’s visit represented the United States’ commitment to supporting West Germany and its leaders, including Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and President Heinrich Lübke.

Among President Kennedy’s numerous speeches in Germany was one given at the signing of the charter for the German Development Service, an organization equivalent to the Peace Corps. The President’s sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver and Secretary-General of the International Peace Corps, Richard Goodwin, were also present at the ceremony.

President Kennedy also took the time to visit American troops stationed at Fliegerhorst Kaserne, a military base in the town of Hanau. He viewed military displays and had lunch in the mess hall, where military cooks presented him with a cake in the shape of PT-109, the boat that the President commanded during World War II.

Of significance during President Kennedy’s trip to Germany were his remarks delivered at Rudolph Wilde Platz outside West Berlin’s city hall, Rathaus Schöneberg, on June 26. In this speech, the President famously declared, “Ich bin ein Berliner,” or “I am a Berliner.” One photograph from this event was previously cataloged, but newly-available photos provide different vantage points of the large crowds who gathered for the occasion.

West Berlin was not the only site where crowds converged to see President Kennedy. The entire trip was characterized by throngs of people who took to the streets and plazas of West Germany to see the President, either as his motorcade passed by or as he delivered remarks. These photographs provide evidence of the sheer volume of people who gathered for the President’s visit.

One notable result of cataloging these photographs was that metadata catalogers were able to identify numerous people who had previously been unidentified in the White House Photographs collection. Using both textual and audiovisual resources within the Kennedy Library’s collections, as well as contemporary newspaper accounts, Ancestry.com, and other resources, we were able to add 19 names to the Kennedy Library’s database of personal name browsing terms. Among them are: Director of Radio in the American Sector (RIAS) in Berlin, Robert Lochner, who served as President Kennedy’s translator for much of the trip; several members of the United States Armed Forces who were stationed in Germany, including Commander in Chief of the U.S. Army in Europe, General Paul L. Freeman, Jr., Commander in Chief of U.S. Air Forces in Europe, General Truman H. Landon and U.S. Army in Europe Project Officer, Colonel Frank Meszar; and Rector of Free University in Berlin, Ernst Heinitz, who conferred an honorary citizenship award upon the President on his last day in Germany.

President Kennedy’s trip to Germany represented a significant diplomatic venture of his presidency. The photographs from the trip, long available for viewing onsite at the Kennedy Library, may now be found by online users all over the world. In addition to the inclusion of browsing terms for individual people, other terms have been added to the photographs to aid in searching for specific subjects, places, and organizations. The images offer insight into President Kennedy’s travels to a much broader audience as a result.

Browse all photos from President Kennedy’s trip to Germany:

Germany, Bonn: Arrival, Konrad Adenauer, Chancellor of West Germany pictured

Germany, Cologne: Kölner Rathaus (City Hall)

Germany, Cologne: Motorcade, Cathedral

Germany, Bonn: City Hall, ceremonies and remarks

Germany, Bonn: Address at the American Community Theater before the American Embassy staff

Germany, Bonn: Villa Hammerschmidt, Peace Corps Ceremony

Germany, Bonn: President Kennedy gives a press conference

Germany, Bonn: President Kennedy with Heinrich Lübke

Germany, Bad Godesburg, U.S. Ambassador’s Residence: President Kennedy signs Golden Book

Germany, Hanau: Arrival at Fliegerhorst Kaserne, address, and inspection of troops and equipment

Germany, Hanau: President Kennedy has lunch with U.S. enlisted troops and their officers at Fliegerhorst Kaserne

Germany, Hanau: Departure from Fliegerhorst Kaserne

Germany, Frankfurt: Frankfurt Rathaus

Germany, Frankfurt: President Kennedy gives address in Roemerberg Square

Germany, Frankfurt: President Kennedy at Paulskirche

Germany, West Berlin: President Kennedy arrives at Tegel Airport

Germany, West Berlin, President Kennedy views the Berlin Wall at the Brandenburg Gate

Germany, West Berlin: President Kennedy at Checkpoint Charlie

Germany, West Berlin: President Kennedy addresses crowd at Rathaus Schöneberg

Germany, West Berlin: President Kennedy in motorcade with Willy Brandt, Mayor of West Berlin and Konrad Adenauer, Chancellor of West Germany

Germany, West Berlin: President Kennedy addresses Free University

1963, John F. Kennedy – fliegerhorst kaserne germany Kenenth Miler 1911a1 45

I remember shaking his hand as a young Cub Scout in 1963 during his visit. This older woman next to me said” I’ll never wash my hand again”!

My father was in the Army stationed in Germany during President Kennedy’s visit. I have a photo of the President reviewing a Nike Hercules missile on June 25, 1963. My dad is the unit commander saluting the motorcade at the end of the row of soldiers. I will happily share this photo with you. I will attempt to attach it here, if that does not work, I will email it to you if you send me an email so I have an address.

I was a dependent of an Air Force Colonel stationed at Lindsey Air Station Headquarters U S Air Forces Europe (Wiesbaden). We went to the landing of JFK at the General Von Steuben Hotel and were crushed by the crowd of thousands. The streets were packed as far as the eye could see. Although you could see the helicopter land and President Kennedy get out, it was impossible to get very close. A few days later when JFK was departing Wiesbaden AFB, military personnel and dependents were allowed on the base to greet and send of President Kennedy. I was fortunate enough to be one of them. Although it was crowded, JFK spent some time walking along the fence line greeting the crowd. I had the great experience of being able to shake JFK’s hand as he moved long the fence. It was so meaningful and beyond belief. It was a great day and one which I will never forget.

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President John F Kennedy delivers his famous ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’ speech in front of the city hall in West Berlin, 26 June 1963.

Why Mr Kennedy is in Europe - archive, June 1963

In the summer of 1963, President John F Kennedy visited Europe, including West Berlin, where he made his anti-communist ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’ speech. As the Guardian’s Hella Pick explained at the time, the trip was a personal rescue attempt of the Atlantic alliance

P resident Kennedy could scarcely have chosen a worse moment for his European trip. The White House makes few bones about that. Nevertheless Mr Kennedy has never wavered from his decision to go. To cancel it at the last moment would only have created further embarrassment abroad. He has not been deterred by the civil rights crisis at home, Britain’s political troubles, the untimely elections in the Vatican. or the long drawn-out efforts to find a new Italian Government. There has been strong advice against the trip. Civil rights advocates consider the President must give all to the battle, including his continuous presence. Some of his own officials believe that the President may unwittingly only add to political confusion in Britain and Italy, and have argued that the trip at best will yield nothing positive and at worst will draw attention to the bankruptcy of America’s European policy, which is still reeling from the impact of General de Gaulle.

But the President evidently felt that a personal rescue attempt of the Atlantic alliance was essential. By going to Europe, and especially to its heart in Berlin, the President is trying to convince European leaders that General de Gaulle is wrong and that the United States commitment in Europe is constant and even increasing. He wants to impress on Britain, and more especially on Western Germany and Italy, the necessity for cementing the Atlantic alliance, and to convince them that the US has no intention of doing a deal with the Soviet Union at the expense of its allies – that, indeed, he would consider such a move against America’s insect interests. At the same time the President will certainly pursue the major theme he opened in his recent foreign policy speech at the American University in Washington, where he urged the need for peaceful coexistence with the Soviet Union and for a fresh look at East-West problems.

The US argument will be that the Soviet Union is on the defensive and that the Atlantic alliance has a hopeful opportunity for negotiation. But he may also carry a warning that the US cannot wait indefinitely while Europe makes up i:s mind whether to listen to him or to General de Gaulle. US officials still insist that the US has no quarrel with France. but it the President has evidently become convinced that General de Gaulle will stop at virtually nothing to divide Western Europe from Britain and the US. His actions are considered to have gone beyond mere nuisance value. The US resents the tact that the French decision against paying for United Nations peace-keeping operations was recently delivered in virtually identical terms with those of the Soviet announcement; it considers that French efforts are directed towards undermining the vital trade negotiations of the Kennedy round. French withdrawal of its naval forces from NATO is hardly helpful, and the French insistence that the US would not help to defend Europe against nuclear attack falls on receptive ears in Moscow and elsewhere in Europe.

Norman Crosland reports on President Kennedy’s visit to Cologne, part of his European trip, the Guardian, 24 June 1963.

The US has failed to out-manoeuvre France so far. President Kennedy is making an outstanding effort now. General de Gaulle will again be visiting Germany in July. The President, by engaging in a virtual popularity contest. is trying to insure against a further German effort to strengthen Franco-German relations at the expense of the Atlantic alliance.

By deciding to accept Mr Macmillan’s pressing invitation, President Kennedy certainly had more in mind than the need to confirm America’s stake in Europe. Britain’s leaders need little reassurance on that score. and President Kennedy would not have decided to rub more salt into French wounds if there had not been other objectives.

There have been many suggestions that the Admininstration continues to distrust Mr Harold Wilson, and that the President has no great objection to adding his small mite towards trying to keep the Conservative Party in office. However, most certainly the White House would deny any such motive. Anglo-American aid to India will be examined during the British visit, but the obvious major reason for going to London is to discuss the Anglo-American brief at the forthcoming test ban talks. The Moscow talks will be difficult and complex. Mr Kennedy wants to settle on a strategy that would not close the door to further negotiations even if there is failure in Moscow. He also wants agreement with Britain on the extent to which the West might offer further concessions in an effort to obtain a treaty.

The Administration does not consider that Mr Khrushchev’s recent remarks on the test ban treaty close the door to on-site inspection in the Soviet Union. But it believes that one more attempt is possible to convince the Soviet Union that on-site inspection would not in fact facilitate Western espionage.

President John F. Kennedy, fourth from right, stands on a platform overlooking the wall dividing East and West Berlin on 26 June, 1963.

The President takes with him to Europe two projects designed to confirm US determination for linking its fate to Europe. Alas, neither is an ace. The first Is the project for a multilateral NATO nuclear deterrent. The second is the Trade Expansion Act – the Kennedy round. Both are liable to cause as much dissension as they could help to cement unity. The proposals to establish a fleet of surface ships armed with Polaris missiles. jointly owned by NATO countries and manned with mixed crews, is if anything even less popular now than when it was first launched. It is widely regarded as a gimmick, even by many members of the Administration, and the Pentagon considers its military value as more than doubtful. Even its most ardent advocates agree that its main justification is political. They argue that a Polaris fleet would satisfy Germany’s nuclear aspirations without giving Germany a decisive hand on the trigger; and that it would at the same time strengthen Europe’s sense of participation in Western defence. The critics argue back that Germany had few nuclear aspirations until the US began to talk of a multilateral deterrent, and that Europe’s sense of participation in Atlantic defence would hardly be strengthened by a project which the military consider of doubtful value.

The President does not accept this argument. Nor could he really afford to: the Administration has thought up no alternative ideas to put in its place. His concern now Is to prevent the MLS – as it is now popularly known to insiders – from becoming a purely US-German enterprise. Indeed, the US would probably rather abandon it altogether if it cannot attract at least one other partner in addition to Germany. Ideally the President had hoped to set off on this trip with the assurance that Britain at least would definitely join, and that this would act as an additional spur on Italy. In fact. British doubts, linked to Mr Macmillan’s preoccupation with the Profumo affair, have put off the British decision, and the President has given up all hope of obtaining a decisive commitment during his present trip. Nor can he obtain one in Italy. This will obviously diminish the practical work of his talks with the Germans, since he will neither be able to confirm the creation of the MLS nor discuss Germany’s share of the cost. The Germans are reported to be more than dubious over the suggestion that they should share at least a third and possibly more of the cost.

Willy Brandt, centre, then ruling mayor of West-Berlin, U.S. president John F. Kennedy, left, and German chancellor Konrad Adenauer, during sightseeing tour through Berlin, June 1963.

The President’s other big project is now seen of equally dubious worth as a cement for the Atlantic alliance. The negotiations surrounding the application of the Trade Expansion Act threaten to divide rather than unite. The President will work hard to win Germany’s co-operation. But the Administration knows that powerful economic forces are pulling towards General de Gaulle’s inward-looking concept of the EEC.

Certainly on the eve of the presidential trip the storm signals are out in Washington. The President must always have one eye on Congress. Embattled in civil rights legislation. the liberal elements of Congress will be virtually powerless to stem the tide of Congressional opinion against the Europe that does not want to see a good thing when it is offered. Indeed, there are ominous signs of a Congressional demand to withdraw US military assistance to unco-operative NATO countries. If Europe does not accept the assurance for close co-operation which the President is now bringing, he may no longer be in a position later to offer any at ail. The President obviously hopes that this message will be heeded.

The Guardian view: President Kennedy in Europe

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Love struck: Photographs of JFK's visit to Berlin 50 years ago reveal a nation instantly smitten

Photographer ulrich mack accompanied kennedy on the entire trip. the results, published this month as kennedy in berlin, have mostly never been seen before and are an astonishing record of a watershed moment, says john walsh., article bookmarked.

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Fifty years ago, in June 1963, the most powerful man in the world visited the Federal Republic of Germany. President John F Kennedy and his entourage landed at Cologne-Bonn airport on Sunday morning, 22 June. A mayoral reception, a speech to the huge Cologne crowd, mass in the cathedral, and the presidential motorcade swept off to Bonn, to meet the Federal Chancellor, Konrad Adenauer.

On Monday, Kennedy had talks with the German Federal President, Heinrich Lübke, with Willy Brandt (then mayor of West Berlin) and the German Peace Corps. On Tuesday he was helicoptered to Hanau, to address troops of the American 3rd Army Division, then driven to Frankfurt where he addressed a crowd on the Römerberg, before flying to Wiesbaden for talks with Vice Chancellor Ludwig Erhard and a motorcade to the Kurhaus for a reception hosted by the prime minister of Hesse.

So far, so unexciting – a predictable itinerary of meetings with dignitaries, diplomatic chats, lunches, dinners and hotel nights. Kennedy, by all accounts, wasn't a big fan of Germany in 1963: he looked askance at their post-war economic resurgence, their calls for reunification, their growing importance as a buffer against Eastern Europe. During his trip, Der Spiegel carried an article headed 'John F Kennedy doesn't like the Germans'. But by the end of his trip, something extraordinary had happened: Kennedy and the German people had fallen in love with each other.

In Cologne, in Bonn, in Frankfurt, in Wiesbaden, huge crowds had turned out to see the charismatic American president. At 46, Kennedy seemed a world away from the gaunt, saurian Chancellor Adenauer, from the venerable De Gaulle in France, Macmillan in England, Khrushchev in Russia. The Germans greeted him as a hope for the future, a decisive, libertarian, intellectual and, most crucially, young head of state who understood how much they hated living as a divided nation, half in Communist hands, a division symbolised by the Berlin Wall, built two years earlier.

They came out in their thousands to greet him. Among them was a 31-year-old photographer called Ulrich Mack, commissioned by Quick, a large-format illustrated magazine with a circulation of 1.2 million. Mack's brief was to accompany Kennedy on the entire trip, from touchdown at Cologne to departure from Berlin. He brought with him four Leica cameras with focal lengths of 28, 35, 50 and 75mm and miles of Tri-X film, and recorded the whole visit.

The results, published this month as Kennedy in Berlin, have mostly never been seen before. Quick published only six photographs; Kennedy didn't even make the cover. But they are an astonishing record of a watershed moment. Mack moves in close to the motorcade, to Kennedy's magnetic presence, to individual faces in the crowd – then moves miles back to capture the big picture, the multitude, the wide-open spaces, the granite blankness of the Berlin Wall, the seething multitude that fills all four sides of the shot. He pictures a line of German boy scouts sitting by the roadside with their American flags; the presidential car all but mobbed by US military; a row of hard-hatted construction workers waving from the top of a motorway sign.

And he was there on the magical final morning, when Kennedy flew into Berlin's Tegel airport. June 26 was fine and sunny. Emboldened by reports of massive crowds greeting Kennedy elsewhere, two million people swarmed into the streets of Berlin. Kennedy was driven to the Brandenburg Gate, and to a viewing platform from which to inspect the Berlin Wall. His motorcade inched through the hordes, who threw cascades of flowers, rice and torn paper at the presidential Lincoln.

At 12.50pm, at Schöneberg Hall before 450,000 enraptured Berliners, he made the most famous speech of his career: "There are many people in the world who really don't understand, or say they don't, what is the great issue between the free world and the Communist world. Let them come to Berlin. There are some who say that Communism is the wave of the future. Let them come to Berlin…" He called the Berlin Wall "the most obvious signal of the failure of the Communist system, dividing a people who wish to be joined together". And he concluded, "All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin and therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words 'Ich bin ein Berliner'."

The crowd's applause was prolonged and deafening. Kennedy told them, effectively, that America was on their side against the Communists. These photographs record their delight. The Süddeutsche Zeitung ran the headline, 'The Guest Who Makes The Germans Ecstatic'. Kennedy, on his return, told his wife "I love Berlin" and later mused, "There are things in this world you can only believe if you've experienced them yourself, and with regard to which it is difficult to comprehend afterwards what has happened to you".

Unfortunately, we know exactly what happened to him. It occurred five months later, in Dallas. He died in the same Lincoln Continental that had taken him through the ocean of joyous faces in the streets of Berlin.

'Kennedy in Berlin' edited by Hans-Michael Koetzle (Hirmer) is published 24 June, £29.95

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Berlin Wall

By: History.com Editors

Updated: November 16, 2023 | Original: December 15, 2009

East Germans at Brandenburg GateEast Germans wait for money being given to them by banks in West Berlin. (Photo by David Turnley/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images)

On August 13, 1961, the Communist government of the German Democratic Republic (GDR, or East Germany) began to build a barbed wire and concrete “Antifascistischer Schutzwall,” or “antifascist bulwark,” between East and West Berlin. The official purpose of this Berlin Wall was to keep so-called Western “fascists” from entering East Germany and undermining the socialist state, but it primarily served the objective of stemming mass defections from East to West. The Berlin Wall stood until November 9, 1989, when the head of the East German Communist Party announced that citizens of the GDR could cross the border whenever they pleased. That night, ecstatic crowds swarmed the wall. Some crossed freely into West Berlin, while others brought hammers and picks and began to chip away at the wall itself. To this day, the Berlin Wall remains one of the most powerful and enduring symbols of the Cold War.

The Berlin Wall: The Partitioning of Berlin

As World War II came to an end in 1945, a pair of Allied peace conferences at Yalta and Potsdam determined the fate of Germany’s territories. They split the defeated nation into four “allied occupation zones”: The eastern part of the country went to the Soviet Union , while the western part went to the United States, Great Britain and (eventually) France.

Even though Berlin was located entirely within the Soviet part of the country (it sat about 100 miles from the border between the eastern and western occupation zones), the Yalta and Potsdam agreements split the city into similar sectors. The Soviets took the eastern half, while the other Allies took the western. This four-way occupation of Berlin began in June 1945.

The Berlin Wall: Blockade and Crisis

The existence of West Berlin, a conspicuously capitalist city deep within communist East Germany, “stuck like a bone in the Soviet throat,” as Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev put it. The Russians began maneuvering to drive the United States, Britain and France out of the city for good. In 1948, a Soviet blockade of West Berlin aimed to starve the western Allies out of the city. Instead of retreating, however, the United States and its allies supplied their sectors of the city from the air. This effort, known as the Berlin Airlift , lasted for more than a year and delivered more than 2.3 million tons of food, fuel and other goods to West Berlin. The Soviets called off the blockade in 1949.

Did you know? On October 22, 1961, a quarrel between an East German border guard and an American official on his way to the opera in East Berlin very nearly led to what one observer called "a nuclear-age equivalent of the Wild West Showdown at the O.K. Corral." That day, American and Soviet tanks faced off at Checkpoint Charlie for 16 hours. Photographs of the confrontation are some of the most familiar and memorable images of the Cold War.

After a decade of relative calm, tensions flared again in 1958. For the next three years, the Soviets–emboldened by the successful launch of the Sputnik satellite the year before during the “ Space Race ” and embarrassed by the seemingly endless flow of refugees from east to west (nearly 3 million since the end of the blockade, many of them young skilled workers such as doctors, teachers and engineers)–blustered and made threats, while the Allies resisted. Summits, conferences and other negotiations came and went without resolution.

Meanwhile, the flood of refugees continued. In June 1961, some 19,000 people left the GDR through Berlin. The following month, 30,000 fled. In the first 11 days of August, 16,000 East Germans crossed the border into West Berlin, and on August 12 some 2,400 followed—the largest number of defectors ever to leave East Germany in a single day.

The Berlin Wall: Building the Wall

Crossing the Berlin Wall: Photos

That night, Premier Khrushchev gave the East German government permission to stop the flow of emigrants by closing its border for good. In just two weeks, the East German army, police force and volunteer construction workers had completed a makeshift barbed wire and concrete block wall –the Berlin Wall–that divided one side of the city from the other.

Before the wall was built, Berliners on both sides of the city could move around fairly freely: They crossed the East-West border to work, to shop, to go to the theater and the movies. Trains and subway lines carried passengers back and forth. After the wall was built, it became impossible to get from East to West Berlin except through one of three checkpoints: at Helmstedt (“Checkpoint Alpha” in American military parlance), at Dreilinden (“Checkpoint Bravo”) and in the center of Berlin at Friedrichstrasse (“Checkpoint Charlie”). (Eventually, the GDR built 12 checkpoints along the wall.) At each of the checkpoints, East German soldiers screened diplomats and other officials before they were allowed to enter or leave. Except under special circumstances, travelers from East and West Berlin were rarely allowed across the border.

The Berlin Wall: 1961-1989

The construction of the Berlin Wall did stop the flood of refugees from East to West, and it did defuse the crisis over Berlin. (Though he was not happy about it, President John F. Kennedy conceded that “a wall is a hell of a lot better than a war.”) Almost two years after the Berlin Wall was erected, John F. Kennedy delivered one of the most famous addresses of his presidency to a crowd of more than 120,000 gathered outside West Berlin’s city hall, just steps from the Brandenburg Gate . Kennedy’s speech has been largely remembered for one particular phrase. “I am a Berliner.”

In all, at least 171 people were killed trying to get over, under or around the Berlin Wall. Escape from East Germany was not impossible, however: From 1961 until the wall came down in 1989, more than 5,000 East Germans (including some 600 border guards) managed to cross the border by jumping out of windows adjacent to the wall, climbing over the barbed wire, flying in hot air balloons, crawling through the sewers and driving through unfortified parts of the wall at high speeds.

The Berlin Wall: The Fall of the Wall

On November 9, 1989, as the Cold War began to thaw across Eastern Europe, an East German Communist Party spokesman announced a series of new policies regarding border crossings. When pressed on when the changes would take place, he said “As far as I know... effective immediately, without delay.” East Berliners flocked to border checkpoints, some chanting “Tor auf!” (“Open the gate!”). Within hours, the guards were letting the crowds through, where West Berliners greeted them with flowers and champagne.

More than 2 million people from East Berlin visited West Berlin that weekend to participate in a celebration that was, one journalist wrote, “the greatest street party in the history of the world.” People used hammers and picks to knock away chunks of the wall–they became known as “mauerspechte,” or “wall woodpeckers”—while cranes and bulldozers pulled down section after section. Soon the wall was gone and Berlin was united for the first time since 1945. “Only today,” one Berliner spray-painted on a piece of the wall, “is the war really over.”

The reunification of East and West Germany was made official on October 3, 1990, almost one year after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

when did jfk visit berlin

HISTORY Vault: Declassified: Rise and Fall of the Wall

Mine formerly guarded vaults and archives around the world to reveal untold stories about the brutal life and catastrophic death of the Berlin Wall, a central symbol of the 20th century's longest and deadliest war.

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Historic Speeches

Remarks at the rudolph wilde platz, berlin.

Transcripts: [[selectable_languages.length]] Languages

About Historic Speech

Accession Number:  USG:2B-1 (excerpt)

Digital Identifier:  USG-2B-1

Title:  Excerpt from "One Day in Berlin"

Date(s) of Materials:  26 June 1963

Description:  Motion picture covering President John F. Kennedy's visit to Berlin, Germany. President Kennedy arrives at Tegel Airport in Berlin and delivers remarks in a welcome ceremony presided over by Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany Konrad Adenauer and Mayor of West Berlin Willy Brandt. President Kennedy visits the site of the Brandenburg Gate, looks over the Berlin Wall, and then visits Checkpoint Charlie. President Kennedy delivers an address upon signing the Golden Book at the Rathaus Schöneberg on Rudolph Wilde Platz. In his speech President Kennedy discusses his hopes for the reunification of Germany, and emphasizes the philosophical differences between capitalism and communism, noting, "Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free." In his remarks President Kennedy famously proclaims, "Ich bin ein Berliner." Afterward President Kennedy attends a ceremony at Berlin Free University and addresses the crowd, and finally delivers farewell remarks and departs Berlin. Produced by Sgt Bill Bailey, Special Events Department of AFTV (Air Force Television). Edited by Sgt James Connelly. Narrated by A1C Al Baker.

Copyright Status:  Public Domain

Physical Description:  1 film reel (black-and-white; sound; 16 mm; 35 minutes)

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The transatlantic relationship.

The US President, John F Kennedy, made a ground-breaking speech in Berlin offering American solidarity to the citizens of West Germany. A crowd of 120,000 Berliners gathered in front of the Schöneberg Rathaus (City Hall) to hear President Kennedy speak. They began gathering in the square long before he was due to arrive, and when he finally appeared on the podium they gave him an ovation of several minutes.

In an impassioned speech, the president told them West Berlin was a symbol of freedom in a world threatened by the Cold War. His speech was punctuated throughout by rapturous cheers of approval. He ended on the theme he had begun with:

"All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words, 'Ich bin ein Berliner.'"

Kennedy's "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech was seen as a turning point in the Cold War. It was a major morale booster for West Germans, alarmed by the recently-built Berlin Wall. It also gave a strongly defiant message to the Soviet Union and effectively put down Moscow's hopes of driving the Allies out of West Berlin. Two months later, President Kennedy negotiated the first nuclear test ban treaty with the Soviet Union, in what was seen as a first step towards ending the Cold War.

delivered 26 June 1963, West Berlin The full text of Kennedy's "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech

I am proud to come to this city as the guest of your distinguished Mayor, who has symbolized throughout the world the fighting spirit of West Berlin. And I am proud -- And I am proud to visit the Federal Republic with your distinguished Chancellor who for so many years has committed Germany to democracy and freedom and progress, and to come here in the company of my fellow American, General Clay, who who has been in this city during its great moments of crisis and will come again if ever needed.

Two thousand years ago -- Two thousand years ago, the proudest boast was "civis Romanus sum." Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is "Ich bin ein Berliner."

(I appreciate my interpreter translating my German.)

There are many people in the world who really don't understand, or say they don't, what is the great issue between the free world and the Communist world.

Let them come to Berlin.

There are some who say -- There are some who say that communism is the wave of the future.

And there are some who say, in Europe and elsewhere, we can work with the Communists.

And there are even a few who say that it is true that communism is an evil system, but it permits us to make economic progress.

Lass' sie nach Berlin kommen.

Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect. But we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in -- to prevent them from leaving us. I want to say on behalf of my countrymen who live many miles away on the other side of the Atlantic, who are far distant from you, that they take the greatest pride, that they have been able to share with you, even from a distance, the story of the last 18 years. I know of no town, no city, that has been besieged for 18 years that still lives with the vitality and the force, and the hope, and the determination of the city of West Berlin.

While the wall is the most obvious and vivid demonstration of the failures of the Communist system -- for all the world to see -- we take no satisfaction in it; for it is, as your Mayor has said, an offense not only against history but an offense against humanity, separating families, dividing husbands and wives and brothers and sisters, and dividing a people who wish to be joined together.

What is -- What is true of this city is true of Germany: Real, lasting peace in Europe can never be assured as long as one German out of four is denied the elementary right of free men, and that is to make a free choice. In 18 years of peace and good faith, this generation of Germans has earned the right to be free, including the right to unite their families and their nation in lasting peace, with good will to all people.

You live in a defended island of freedom, but your life is part of the main. So let me ask you, as I close, to lift your eyes beyond the dangers of today, to the hopes of tomorrow, beyond the freedom merely of this city of Berlin, or your country of Germany, to the advance of freedom everywhere, beyond the wall to the day of peace with justice, beyond yourselves and ourselves to all mankind.

Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free. When all are free, then we look -- can look forward to that day when this city will be joined as one and this country and this great Continent of Europe in a peaceful and hopeful globe. When that day finally comes, as it will, the people of West Berlin can take sober satisfaction in the fact that they were in the front lines for almost two decades.

All -- All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin.

And, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words "Ich bin ein Berliner."

when did jfk visit berlin

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  1. Eyewitness To History: The Fall Of The Berlin Wall : NPR

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  2. 50 Years Later: A Photo Gallery of JFK's Historic Trip to Berlin

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  3. Jfk June 1963 Berlin

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  4. Today in History, June 26: U.S. President John F. Kennedy Berlin Speech

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  5. Kennedy in Berlin

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  6. John F Kennedy Berlin Wall Speech June 26, 1963 : r/OldSchoolCool

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VIDEO

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COMMENTS

  1. Ich bin ein Berliner

    Welthauptstadt Germania Deportation of Jews from Berlin Bombing of Berlin in World War II Battle of Berlin West Germany and East Germany (1945-1990) West Berlin and East Berlin Berlin Wall Berlin Blockade (1948-1949) Berlin Crisis of 1961 "Ich bin ein Berliner" (1963) "Tear down this wall!" (1987) Fall of the Berlin Wall (1989)

  2. The Cold War in Berlin

    Learn About JFK JFK in History The Cold War in Berlin Two years after the construction of the Berlin Wall, President Kennedy paid a historic visit to Berlin to challenge Soviet oppression and offer hope to the people of the divided city.

  3. One Day in Berlin, 26 June 1963

    Remarks in the Rudolph Wilde Platz, 26 June 1963. Trip to Europe: Germany, West Berlin: President Kennedy arrives at Tegel Airport. Trip to Europe: Germany, West Berlin, President Kennedy views the Brandenburg Gate at the Berlin Wall, 11:30AM. Trip to Europe: Germany, West Berlin: President Kennedy at Checkpoint Charlie, 12:05PM.

  4. Remarks of President John F. Kennedy at the Rudolph Wilde Platz, Berlin

    Remarks of President John F. Kennedy at the Rudolph Wilde Platz, Berlin, June 26, 1963 Listen to speech. View related documents. President John F. Kennedy West Berlin June 26, 1963 [ This version is published in the Public Papers of the Presidents: John F. Kennedy, 1963. Both the text and the audio versions omit the words of the German translator.

  5. The story behind John F. Kennedy's 'Ich bin ein Berliner'

    06/23/2023 During the Cold War 60 years ago, US President John F. Kennedy sparked hope with a legendary speech given in West Berlin after the Berlin Wall came up. Image: AP Photo/picture...

  6. Exhibit: Kennedy at the Berlin Wall

    --President John F. Kennedy, Berlin, Germany, June 26, 1963 The cold war is the term for the rivalry between the two blocs of contending states that emerged following World War II.

  7. John F. Kennedy's visiting programme in Berlin

    Kennedy's visit to the divided city on 26 June 1963 was the highlight of his three-day visit to Germany. On that Wednesday, the American president landed at 9.45 a.m. at the military section of Tegel Airport.

  8. JFK's Historic 'Ich Bin ein Berliner' Speech Revisited

    John F. Kennedy visiting West Berlin in June 1963 and delivering his "Ich bin ein Berliner" ("I Am a Berliner") speech. Contunico © ZDF Studios GmbH, Mainz JFK's historic "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech revisited Track the rapid escalation of the Vietnam War under Pres. John F. Kennedy's administration

  9. BBC ON THIS DAY

    The US President, John F Kennedy, has made a ground-breaking speech in Berlin offering American solidarity to the citizens of West Germany. A crowd of 120,000 Berliners gathered in front of the Schöneberg Rathaus (City Hall) to hear President Kennedy speak.

  10. PDF John F. Kennedy's Berlin Wall Speech

    President John F. Kennedy, Remarks at the Rudolph Wilde Platz, June 26, 1963 West Berlin, Federal Republic of Germany I am proud to come to the city as the guest of your distinguished Mayor, who has symbolized throughout the world the fighting spirit of West Berlin. And I am proud to visit the Federal

  11. ICD

    The US President, John F Kennedy, made a ground-breaking speech in Berlin offering American solidarity to the citizens of West Germany. A crowd of 120,000 Berliners gathered in front of the Schöneberg Rathaus (City Hall) to hear President Kennedy speak.

  12. When JFK Told West Berliners That He Was One of Them

    He visited Bonn, Cologne and Frankfurt in West Germany, where big crowds chanted his name and waved U.S. flags, before flying into West Berlin on the morning of June 26. On the way over he showed...

  13. Digitized Photographs from President John F. Kennedy's ...

    These photographs, covering June 23 to June 26, 1963, document President Kennedy's only official trip to what was then a divided Germany. He spent four days in West Germany, also known as the Federal Republic of Germany, inaugurating a 10-day trip to Europe that also included visits to Ireland, England, and Italy.

  14. Why Mr Kennedy is in Europe

    In the summer of 1963, President John F Kennedy visited Europe, including West Berlin, where he made his anti-communist 'Ich bin ein Berliner' speech. As the Guardian's Hella Pick explained at...

  15. Germany: JFK visit, June 1963

    This folder contains material collected by the office of President John F. Kennedy's secretary, Evelyn Lincoln, concerning Germany. Materials concern President Kennedy's visit to Germany (Federal Republic) on June 23-26, 1963. Also included in this folder is a transcript of Chancellor of Germany (Federal Republic) Konrad Adenauer's television address on the eve of the President's visit and a ...

  16. John F. Kennedy claims solidarity with the people of Berlin

    President John F. Kennedy expresses solidarity with democratic German citizens in a speech on June 26, 1963. In front of the Berlin Wall that separated the city into democratic and communist...

  17. Love struck: Photographs of JFK's visit to Berlin 50 years ago reveal

    Fifty years ago, in June 1963, the most powerful man in the world visited the Federal Republic of Germany. President John F Kennedy and his entourage landed at Cologne-Bonn airport on Sunday ...

  18. JFK Visits West Berlin

    On June 26, 1963, President John F. Kennedy visited West Berlin, where he delivered his famous speech expressing solidarity with the city's residents, declar...

  19. Berlin Wall

    Almost two years after the Berlin Wall was erected, John F. Kennedy delivered one of the most famous addresses of his presidency to a crowd of more than 120,000 gathered outside West Berlin's ...

  20. Remarks at the Rudolph Wilde Platz, Berlin

    President Kennedy arrived in Berlin on June 26, 1963, following appearances in Bonn, Cologne and Frankfurt, where he had given speeches to huge, wildly cheering crowds. In Berlin, an immense crowd of 120,000 Berliners gathered in the Rudolph Wilde Platz near the Berlin Wall to listen to hear President Kennedy speak.

  21. The USA's response to the Berlin Wall

    On 26 June 1963, President Kennedy visited Berlin and made a famous speech in which he stated that Berlin was a symbol of freedom and the struggle against communism It was a strong, defiant...

  22. JFK's visit to Berlin in 1963

    President John F Kennedy's historic visit to Berlin in 1963 changed the city and its place in history. He said that all free men were citizens of Berlin and made his famous statement, "Ich...

  23. Academy for Cultural Diplomacy

    John F. Kennedy Visit to Berlin, June, 26th, 1963 The US President, John F Kennedy, made a ground-breaking speech in Berlin offering American solidarity to the citizens of West Germany. A crowd of 120,000 Berliners gathered in front of the Schöneberg Rathaus (City Hall) to hear President Kennedy speak. They began gathering in the square long ...