The sentence recognized most widely worldwide as being German wasn't even spoken by a German – "Ich bin ein Berliner" – from John F. Kennedy's famous speech given in Berlin on June 26, 1963.

I have a friend in Berlin who is one person who can rightfully say "Ich bin ein Berliner".

He was born in Berlin and has lived there all his life. We are about the same age, and he and his wife have two children like we do, about the same age as our children. I first met them about 23 years ago when I became the pastor of the Berlin congregation of the Worldwide Church of God. They hosted the first Bible Study I experienced in Berlin in their apartment.

During the Cold War days, my friend and his family would drive from Berlin through East Germany to attend Holy Day services in Hannover, Germany, which is where we usually met on the Holy Days. On a good day with little traffic and a short wait at the border the drive took about three hours. On bad days it could last a couple hours more. With the unification of Germany in 1990 all that is history, fortunately.

One bit of history involving JFK, my Berlin friend and our experience in the Worldwide Church always makes me chuckle. A number of years ago I heard a church leader mention in a sermon that John F. Kennedy's words – "Ich bin ein Berliner" – actually meant that he was calling himself a jelly doughnut, since the word "Berliner" in German also refers to a pastry. If I recall correctly, the sermon had something to do with a false sense of personal identity. The claim was false, of course, and also reflected, in my opinion, the tendency we sometimes have to judge other people, their language, culture, etc., without having any idea what we are talking about. This is, in my opinion, very true of some Americans, who spend a week in Germany and are then experts on this part of the world. 🙂

To make a long story short: my friend was in Berlin on June 26, 1963 and heard JFK's speech. So I asked him if he thought JFK was calling himself a jelly doughnut when he heard the speech. His reaction was immediate and forceful: "Whoever came up with that crazy idea? There was no doubt what Kennedy meant – he was telling us that he was one of us, that he understood our situation!"

Now I wonder – should I tell him where I heard the "jelly doughnut" claim being made?