A Rare Recording of President John F. Kennedy’s "Ich Bin Ein Berliner" Speech

Summary

President John F. Kennedy gave his "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech on June 26, 1963, in West Berlin. It is one of the best-known speeches of the Cold War, and among the most famous anti-communist speeches. Twenty-two months earlier, East Germany had erected the Berlin Wall to prevent mass emigration to West Berlin. The speech was aimed as much at the Soviet Union as it was at West Berliners. The speech is considered one of Kennedy's finest, delivered at the height of the Cold War and the New Frontier. It was a great morale boost for West Berliners, who lived in an enclave deep inside East Germany and feared a possible East German occupation.