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.
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. Let
them come to Berlin.
Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to
put up a wall to keep our people in, to prevent them from leaving us. I want to say, on
behalf of my countrymen, who live many miles away on the other side of the Atlantic,
who are far distant from you, that they take the greatest pride that they have been able to
share with you, even from a distance, the story of the last eighteen years. I know of no
town, no city, that has been besieged for eighteen years that still lives with the vitality
and the force, and the hope and the determination of the city of West Berlin. While the
wall is the most obvious and vivid demonstration of the failures of the Communist
system, all the world can see, we take no satisfaction in it, for it is, as your mayor has
said, an offense not only against history but an offense against humanity, separating
families, dividing husbands and wives and brothers and sisters, and dividing a people
who wish to be joined together.
What is true of this city is true of Germany-real, lasting peace in Europe can never be
assured as long as one German out of four is denied the elementary right of free men,
and that is to make a free choice. In eighteen years of peace and good faith, this
generation of Germans has earned the right to be free, including the right to unite their
families and their nation in lasting peace, with good will to all people. You live in a
defended island of freedom, but your life is part of the main.
So let me ask you, as I close, to lift your eyes beyond the dangers of today, to the hopes
of tomorrow, beyond the freedom merely of this city of Berlin, or your country of
Germany, to the advance of freedom everywhere, beyond the wall to the day of peace
with justice, beyond yourselves and ourselves to all mankind.
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
