JFK’s 1963 Ich Bin Ein Berliner speech

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 3 April 2025

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

United States President John F Kennedy gave a speech in Berlin at the height of the Cold War on 26 June 1963.

It galvanised the world in support of West Berliners who had been isolated by the construction of the Berlin Wall.

In 2023, Tom Wills spoke to Gisela Morel-Tiemann, who attended the speech as a student.

A Whistledown production.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.

Recent episodes explore everything from football in Brazil, the history of the ‘Indian Titanic’ and the invention of air fryers, to Public Enemy’s Fight The Power, subway art and the political crisis in Georgia. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: visionary architect Antoni Gaudi and the design of the Sagrada Familia; Michael Jordan and his bespoke Nike trainers; Princess Diana at the Taj Mahal; and Görel Hanser, manager of legendary Swedish pop band Abba on the influence they’ve had on the music industry. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the time an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at the President of the United States in protest of America’s occupation of Iraq; the creation of the Hollywood commercial that changed advertising forever; and the ascent of the first Aboriginal MP.

(Photo: John F Kennedy making his speech in Berlin. Credit: Lehnartz/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:29.2	Hello
0:31.1	Hello you're listening to the witness History podcast from the BBC World Service.
0:40.6	Every day we bring you new stories from history as told by the people who are there.
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0:55.8	We're going back to 1963, when then-US President John F. Kennedy made his momentous Ikbin-ein-Berliner speech
1:03.0	at the height of the Cold War. In 2023, Tom Will spoke to Gisela Marel Teeman, a student in
1:09.7	West Berlin who attended the event which was preoccupying the whole city and much of the rest of the world.
1:21.1	It was a big news in all of Berlin that the young President Kennedy would visit Berlin and also would come to the university.
1:31.4	I then was in the age of 19, I think, and so it was clear that I had to be there.
1:38.3	I think that almost everyone I knew wanted to be at this event.
	...

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