June 26, 1963: President John F. Kennedy visits City Hall in West Berlin, and it is the political high point of his European tour. His visit to Ireland, his ancestral homeland, 2 days later, will be the emotional high point, but the Berlin speech has become legend.
Let's take a step back. On May 4, 1962, in New Orleans, Kennedy gave a speech, saying, "Two thousand years ago, the proudest boast was to say, 'I am a citizen of Rome.' Today, I believe, in 1962, the proudest boast is to say, 'I am a citizen of the United States.' And it is not enough to merely say it: We must live it."
He echoed this in Berlin, divided since the end of World War II in 1945, between a capitalist West and a Communist East, and surrounded by the so-called German Democratic Republic, a.k.a. East Germany, with the Berlin Wall going up in 1961 to make the point in, almost (but not quite) literally, an inescapable way.
Flanked by the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, a.k.a. West Germany, Konrad Adenauer, and the Mayor of West Berlin, Willy Brandt, later to become Chancellor himself, JFK addressed a crowd estimated at 450,000 people, roughly the same number that was on hand for Woodstock, 6 years later. Heinz Weber, of the German mission to the United Nations, translated Kennedy's English words to the crowd:
Two thousand years ago, the proudest boast was "Civis Romanus sum." Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is "Ich bin ein Berliner."
I appreciate my interpreter translating my German!
There are many people in the world who really don't understand, or say they don't, what is the great issue between the free world and the Communist world. Let them come to Berlin!
There are some who say that Communism is the wave of the future. Let them come to Berlin!
And there are some who say, in Europe and elsewhere, we can work with the Communists. Let them come to Berlin!
And there are even a few who say that it is true that Communism is an evil system, but it permits us to make economic progress. Lass' sie nach Berlin kommen. Let them come to Berlin!
Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in, to prevent them from leaving us.
The great Boston Irishman had the Germans eating out of the palm of his hand. The Hall was 3 miles from the Wall, but the speech was broadcast on West German television and radio. How well the East Germans were able to jam the transmission is unknown, but, surely, some people in East Berlin heard Kennedy's words.
He closed with:
Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free. When all are free, then we can look forward to that day when this city will be joined as one, and this country and this great Continent of Europe in a peaceful and hopeful globe. When that day finally comes, as it will, the people of West Berlin can take sober satisfaction in the fact that they were in the front lines for almost two decades.
All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words "Ich bin ein Berliner."
A huge roar went up from the crowd. This was a roar of approval. It was not a roar of laughter. Nobody in that audience believed that, by saying, "Ich bin ein Berliner," Kennedy was actually saying, "I am a Berliner," meaning a pastry similar to a jelly donut. That myth came about years later, probably put forward by someone trying to unfavorably compare Kennedy's speech with Ronald Reagan's "Tear down this wall" speech at the Brandenburg Gate, 24 years later.
Adding the definite article "ein" didn't change the meaning of the word "Berliner." That term for a jelly donut is used in the north, west, and southwest of Germany, but not in Berlin, where the specific pastry known as a Berliner in those other parts of Germany is called a Pfannkuchen, or pancake. So no one in the crowd that day mistook JFK's meaning.
The Berlin Wall was rendered legally meaningless by an act of the GDR government on November 9, 1989. Had he lived, Kennedy would have been 72 years old. Today, there are pieces of that wall at most of the Presidential Libraries, including Kennedy's in Boston.
*
June 26, 1963 was a Wednesday. One other political note: David Ben-Gurion, the 1st and 3rd Prime Minister of Israel, retired for good, and his Minister of Finance, Levi Eshkol, was sworn in as the 4th Prime Minister.
In between Ben-Gurion's terms, the 2nd Prime Minister was Moshe Sharett. All over the world, many good Foreign Ministers have become Prime Ministers, but many of them have failed in the higher role. Sharett was one, and Ben-Gurion had to come back. Eshkol presided over the country's finest hour, the Six-Day War of June 5-10, 1967. But he died in office, of a heart attack at age 73, on February 26, 1969.
These games were played in Major League Baseball on June 26, 1963:
* The New York Yankees beat the Chicago White Sox, 3-2 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Whitey Ford outpitched Gary Peters, who nonetheless went on to be named American League Rookie of the Year. Tom Tresh, the previous year's AL Rookie of the Year, and Roger Maris, the AL Most Valuable Player the 2 seasons before that, hit solo home runs. Elston Howard, who went on to be named this season's AL Most Valuable Player, singled home the Yankees' other run. Mickey Mantle was injured, and did not play. Nor did Yogi Berra.
From its establishment in 1956 until 1966, the Cy Young Award went to the best pitcher in both Leagues. Had there been a separate AL award, Ford would have gotten it. Instead, the overall award went to Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
* The New York Mets beat the Chicago Cubs, 8-6 at the Polo Grounds. Ernie Banks went 0-for-3. Duke Snider went 2-for-4 with an RBI for the Mets. The Mets won it on a home run by Tim Harkness in the bottom of the 14th inning.
* The Boston Red Sox beat the Cleveland Indians, 6-5 at Fenway Park in Boston. Carl Yastrzemski did not play, but Eddie Bressoud hit 2 home runs.
* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 6-2 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Johnny Callison hit a home run, and pitcher Cal McLish helped his own cause by going 2-for-4. Roberto Clemente and Willie Stargell each went 0-for-4.
* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Cincinnati Reds, 5-2 at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. Frank Robinson went 1-for-4.
* The Houston Colt .45s beat the Milwaukee Braves, 7-2 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Hank Aaron went 2-for-5 with an RBI, and Joe Torre went 1-for-5 with an RBI. But the game went to extra innings, and the Braves' Bob Hendley collapsed in the top of the 13th.
* The Minnesota Twins beat the Detroit Tigers, 6-1 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Harmon Killebrew went 0-for-4, but Bob Allison hit 2 home runs. Al Kaline went 2-for-4.
* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the San Francisco Giants, 6-5 at Busch Stadium (formerly Sportsman's Park) in St. Louis. Stan Musial, in his final season, went 0-for-3. Willie Mays went 0-for-4, but Orlando Cepeda hit a home run.
* The Los Angeles Angels swept a doubleheader from the Baltimore Orioles at Dodger Stadium, where they groundshared with the Dodgers from 1962 to 1965. They won the opener, 3-1, thanks to home runs by Bob "Buck" Rodgers and Leon "Daddy Wags" Wagner; and the nightcap, 3-2. Brooks Robinson went 0-for-6 over the doubleheader.
* The Kansas City Athletics and the Washington Senators were supposed to play each other at Kansas City Municipal Stadium, but were rained out. It was rescheduled as part of a doubleheader on August 20. The A's won both games, the opener, 9-0, on a 1-hit shutout by Moe Drabowsky; and the nightcap, 7-5, on a home run by Jerry Lumpe in the bottom of the 12th inning. Lumpe was a Yankee castoff: Manager Casey Stengel once said, "He looks like the greatest player in the world, until you play him."
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