Vol. 06 · Misquoted ·Speech ·144 of 348
""Ich bin ein Berliner" actually means "I am a jelly doughnut.""
They never said that.
What people say
""Ich bin ein Berliner" actually means "I am a jelly doughnut.""
What was actually said
"Ich bin ein Berliner. (I am a Berliner.)" John F. Kennedy — Rathaus Schöneberg speech, West Berlin, 26 June 1963
Why it stuck
The "jelly doughnut" reading is an urban myth. Germans understood Kennedy perfectly. Berliners do not call the pastry Berliner — they call it Pfannkuchen. The indefinite article "ein" is grammatical here because Kennedy is not literally from Berlin; it's the correct metaphorical form.
The myth seems to have started with a 1983 Len Deighton novel and spread via a 1988 New York Times op-ed.
Know another line by heart?
Play the duel and see how many you can spot. Or browse the whole shelf.