Saturday, July 04, 2009
JFK did not misspeak
Roger Crockett
Crockett is a professor of German at Washington and Lee University in Lexington.
As Kathleen and Paul Zweifel correctly pointed out in their letter, "Kennedy speech contained a gaffe" (June 30), German does not use the indefinite article in predicate nominative situations when referring to nationalities, religious affiliations or professions. This does not mean, however, that President Kennedy was incorrect in his usage of the phrase.
Before giving the historic speech that day in June 1963, Kennedy asked his host, the Lord Mayor of West Berlin and later Chancellor of West Germany Willi Brandt, how to say "I am a Berliner" in German. What Brandt wrote down is what Kennedy said. Assuming that Brandt was not trying to embarrass his guest, there must be an explanation for it other than a crude grammatical error.
If I say that a man was a Spartan, it has two possible meanings. Literally, he was a citizen of the ancient Greek city-state Sparta. But it could also mean that he was highly disciplined, hard-working, and courageous in battle.
It is this second figurative meaning, having the characteristics of a Berlin citizen without necessarily being one, that Kennedy intended: calmness in the face of hostility, optimism, courage under siege and an unshakable will to survive. Berlin stood for something larger than itself.
Kennedy never said that he was a resident of the city. He said: "All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin," and that as a free man he took pride in the words "Ich bin ein Berliner." The cheering crowd understood what Kennedy meant in the phrasing that Brandt had suggested.
The indefinite article worked because Kennedy was speaking figuratively, not literally. It is time to put the "doughnut" myth to rest.
It is time to put the "doughnut" myth to rest.
