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According to the context of the speech, Kennedy meant that he stood together with West Berliners in their struggle to maintain their freedom against Communist aggression.
Jelly doughnuts are called "Berliner" outside Berlin (but usually referred to as "Pfannkuchen" in Berlin itself). This has led some people to believe that the phrase Kennedy uttered was amusingly ambiguous ("I am a jelly doughnut"), which is, for the most part, incorrect. While the phrase could possibly be understood that way, both the context of the quotation and the fact that jelly doughnuts are not actually called "Berliner" in Berlin made this unlikely. Normally a Berliner would say "Ich komme aus Berlin" ("I come from Berlin"), but because Kennedy wanted to emphasize the common identity among people of the "world of freedom", that usage would have been misleading. "Ich bin Berliner" (cf. "Ich bin Amerikaner", "Ich bin Deutscher" etc.) would be preferred in common usage. This sentence is about as likely to be misinterpreted as the following analogous example: suppose that the speech had taken place in Frankfurt instead, and Kennedy had said "I am a Frankfurter." While it is possible that a native English speaker would mistake his meaning for "I am a hot dog," given the context most would understand the president to have meant, "I am a citizen of Frankfurt."
The jelly doughnut urban legend apparently arose in Florida in the 1980s and culminated in a letter to the editor to the New York Times in 1987 which claimed that the error was embarrassing and resulted in laughter. The context made the meaning very clear, though, so nobody misunderstood Kennedy when he delivered his speech. He did however pronounce the sentence with a very strong American accent, reading from his note "ish bin ine bear-LEAN-ar". Contrary to the urban legend, it was not followed by a roar of laughter. Audio and film recordings show the remark was followed by applause and cheers, as was witnessed by television audiences in Europe and the United States at the time.
Interestingly, Kennedy did get a laugh a moment after he first used the phrase, but deliberately. His speech was being translated into German for the crowd phrase-by-phrase. "Ich bin ein Berliner" was "translated" to itself, resulting in the interpreter parroting what Kennedy had just said a moment before. As the applause died down, Kennedy paused for a moment, then said: "I appreciate my interpreter translating my German", a quip which did receive a solid laugh from the crowd.
In Terry Pratchett's book Monstrous RegimentMonstrous Regiment is a book by Terry Pratchett published in late 2003, part of his Discworld series. It takes its name from a misogynist 16th century tract by John Knox, the full title of which is " The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Re (pp. 329, Hardcover), Samuel VimesHis Grace the Duke of Ankh Commander Sir Samuel Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch is a fictional character in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. He first appeared in the novel Guards! Guards . Character background Sam Vimes was born in Cockbill Street makes a speech in which he says "Ze chzy Brogocia proztfik!", intending this to mean "I am a citizen of BorograviaBorogravia is a fictional country in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of novels. It is small and extremely war-intensive, and closely resembles Yugoslavia in a number of respects, the most obvious being the prefluency of war, the similarities of the Ser!". What he actually says is "I am a cherry pancake!".
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