JFK is no doughnut: Berlin, 1963

Some 120,000 West Germans turn out to hear US President John F Kennedy’s Berlin address on 26 June 1963: “Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect, but we never had to put up a wall to keep our people in,” he tells those living in the shadow of the recently erected Berlin Wall.

Over the years, an urban myth will sprung up that his concluding message of solidarity “Ich bin ein Berliner” translates as “I am a jelly doughnut”. But, however amusing a notion, JFK’s German is correct.