FW: Eich bin ein Berliner - NOT DONUT

[Henry]

Thanks, Lisa!

Um, maybe KO was joking…

In a New York Review of Books (NOT the No-Yuck-Err!) Review of Thomas Pynchon’s Against the Day (great book, btw):
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/19771 

At one point Pynchon inserts Kit Traverse into a Göttingen insane asylum apparently just so he can set up the story of a patient there who "has come to believe that he is a certain well-known pastry of Berlin—similar to your own American, as you would say, Jelly-doughnut." The patient, who enjoys being powdered with Puderzucker and placed on a shelf, declares, naturally, "ICH BIN EIN BERLINER!"

More info from http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=K 

Kennedy, John Fitzgerald
626; "Ich bin ein Berliner" ("I am a citizen of Berlin") is a famous quotation from a June 26, 1963 speech of U.S. President John F. Kennedy in West Berlin. He was underlining the support of the United States for democratic West Germany shortly after the Soviet-supported Communist state of East Germany erected the Berlin Wall as a barrier to prevent movement between East and West. There is an urban myth that he should have said "Ich bin Berliner" ("I am from Berlin") and that by adding the article "ein" ("a"), he was a non-human Berliner; More about this at Wikipedia

Henry (I am not a donut) Mu
 
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From: Lisa Pease
"Eich bin ein Berliner" means just what Kennedy meant - "I am a Berliner."  I love how these CIA-spread myths end up as the gospel truth, when they are nothing of the sort. Even Keith Olbermann fell for this one.

No, Kennedy did not say he was a donut.

He said, "Eich bin ein Berliner." And if you look up Berliner in a German dictionary, you will find that while donut is o ne meaning, the other meaning, the one Kennedy was obviously saying, is this:

"to be born in Berlin; to be a native Berliner; to be Berlin-born"

I am never surprised to hear the ignorant say Kennedy said this "wrong," when he didn't. But my heart sank when good ol' Keith Olbermann fell for the disinformation. Wow. I guess if a few people say it, it's suddenly true, eh?

Will all of you re ading this please help spread the TRUTH about what Kennedy said? No doubt this will come up in the next few days as Obama prepares his own version of such a speech for Berlin.


Lisa Pease

Blog: http://realhistoryarchives.blogspot.com
Site: http://www.realhistoryarchives.com
Book: The Assassinations: Probe Magazine on JFK, MLK, RFK and Malcolm X



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