John-F.-Kennedy-Platz

John F. Kennedy Square stretches in front of Rathaus Schoeneberg, which served from 1949 until reunification as the seat of West Berlin's Governing Mayor. From this town hall's balcony, on 26 June 1963, U.S. President John F. Kennedy delivered the line "Ich bin ein Berliner" twice to an estimated 450,000 cheering Berliners, once in halting German read from a phonetic note. The occasion was the 15th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift, less than two years after the Wall went up. Three days after Kennedy's assassination in November 1963 the Senate renamed the square in his honor, and a parchment signed by Kennedy still hangs in the town hall foyer. Today it is everyday city ground, but each 26 June the mayor and schoolchildren gather under the balcony for brief commemorative speeches.