Kennedy Ich Bin Ein Berliner Speech Summary

President John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s 5- minute “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech could be considered one of the most important speeches of the cold war era in communist Europe because it drew much attention to the conflict that was at the time considered a hotspot. This speech was delivered on June 26, 1963 in West Berlin in front of the Rathaus Schöneberg to an audience of approximately 450,000 people. President Kennedy was the 35th president of the United States and he was president right in the middle of the cold war, so during his tenure there were very high tensions between The United State of America and other communist states in general, especially Cuba and the Soviet Union. The high tensions were caused by the fact that after World War

Many people have heard President Kennedy’s speech in person in the square in front of the Rathaus Schöneberg as well as through radio broadcast, television and through audio recordings that were released later on. President Kennedy’s speech was written to incite faith in the western system and also to confirm America’s commitment to defend the West from the soviet aggression. His tone for the speech was one of happiness, prosperity, and vitality. He achieved this type of tone by giving praise to the mayor and the people of West Berlin through wording such as “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.”[1] President Kennedy used Pathos by appealing to the German people using the words “Ich bin ein Berliner” [1] (I am a Berliner) to make a connection between he himself and the people of Berlin although he was not born there and in broader terms between the United State of America and the country of Germany. He also compared being a Berliner to being a Roman citizen “civis Romanus sum”[1] denoting the how special it is to be a citizen of Berlin as Rome was a power of the ancient