John F. Kennedy gave young Berliners hope, despite their divided world
All universities are Free Universities, he said — or should be.
This is the re-run of an earlier piece, now offered to all “Berlin Stories” /Substack subscribers, free & paid. Kennedy spoke publicly — at nearby Rathaus Schöneberg and Dahlem — on June 27, 1963. [Coincidentally, this was one week after my family went to hear President Kennedy speak in my native Charleston, West Virginia (USA).] Thanks for reading. -ts
BERLIN (June 24, 2024) — There are still Berliners who remember that June day in 1963 when John F. Kennedy stood before 20,000 specatators and guests at the Free University (Freie Universität). Here, he pledged scholarly commitment to the eventual reunification of Germany — and of East- and Western Europe, as well.
This is a different “Kennedy speech,” from the one he gave earlier the same day, before a much larger crowd at Rathaus Schöneberg. The earlier one was the one in which — two years after the Cold War barrier had gone up — Kennedy famously compared being a citizen of Berlin to being a citizen of Rome, and then told thousands of dispirited Germans, “Ich bin ein Berliner!” At Freie Universität, Kennedy more openly predicted the fall of the wall, the eventual re-unification of Berlin, Germany, and (indeed!) the pulling-together of disunited Europe, East and West, as well. Here, the American president called upon all Germans (and everyone else), to work toward the “reconstitution of …a larger Europe, on both sides of the harsh line which now divides it.”
The task of unifying Europeans, East and West, would be difficult, Kennedy said, requiring a courageous, multi-lateral allegiance “to Truth, to Justice, and to Liberty.”
‘All of us, who have come here, know…that this is not merely an isolated outpost, cut off from the world, cut off from the West. Students come here from many countries, and I hope more will come, especially from Africa and Asia….’
— John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy’s less-well-known address at Freie Universität that day was a remarkable speech, beautifully crafted and delivered. Naturally, he started with a joke, drawn from something he’d read about German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898).
“Prince Bismarck once said that one-third of students at German universities broke down from overwork,” Kennedy noted. “Another third broke down from (self-indulgence), and the other third ruled Germany. …I do not know which third of the student body is here today. (Laughter) But I am confident that I am talking to the future rulers of this country, and also (to leaders) of other free countries, stretching around the world….”
Very much in the spirit of “Ask not what your country can do for you….,” Kennedy challenged university students in Berlin (and around the globe) to think bigger, urging them to begin the work of building a shared, new world and making that world a better place than what’s come before. This was the tone — the magic of American positive-thinking — that kicked-off the student optimism and social engagement of the 1960s, as well as the radical activism of that time.
“(T)he duty of the scholar — or the educated man or woman…is to help build the society which had made their own advancement possible,” Kennedy said. “This school (Freie Universität) is not interested in turning out merely corporation lawyers or skilled accountants. Rather, it is — as it must be — interested in turning out citizens of the world….”
The audience gave its first applause for Kennedy’s speech only tentatively, politely. As people understood more of what he was saying, however, the clapping grew more frequent — and, finally, was embellished by a brief but full-throated shout or two.
Whether they knew it or not, Berlin students — including a fair complement of immigrants — were working toward “the advancement of a free society,” Kennedy told them. The graduating scholars of Berlin’s Free University — and all universities should be free, he noted — were being taught to understand and empathize with neighboring peoples; to be able to share others’ “troubles and well-being” alike, he said. Students of the world should be trained to tackle the “difficult (and) sensitive tasks that lie before us, as free men and women,” Kennedy intoned. “That’s why you’re here, and that’s why this school was founded (in 1948). And all of us benefit from it.”
Noting his country’s military commitment to a free, liberal-minded West Berlin — a commitment he expressed to Berliners within hours before this appearance — Kennedy reminded students that they had been able to pick up their studies despite the surrounding turmoil of difficult political and social change. (The world had witnessed the physical sectioning-off of East- from West Berlin and East- from West Germany just two years before, followed by the American-Soviet stand-off over missiles in Cuba and Turkey.)
“It is not enough to mark time; (nor) to adhere to a status-quo while awaiting a change for the better,” Kennedy said. “In a situation fraught with change and challenge, in an era of this kind, every resident of West Berlin has the duty to consider where he is, where his city is going, and how best he can get there. The scholar, the teacher, (and) the intellectual have a higher duty than any of the others for a society that trains you to think, as well as (to) do. This community has committed itself to that objective. And you have a special obligation to think, and to help forge the future of this city in terms of Truth, and Justice, and Liberty.”
Of Truth, Kennedy said this: “(Truth) requires us to face the facts as they are; and not to involve ourselves in self-deception. To refuse to think merely in slogans. If we are to work for the future of the city, let us deal with the realities as they actually are — not as they might’ve been, and not as we wish they were.”
“The Truth doesn’t die,” Kennedy declared. “The desire for Liberty cannot be fully suppressed!”
Even after 45 years of (one-) party dictatorship, he said, people in the Soviet Union “feel the forces of historical evolution.”
“The harsh precepts of Stalinism are officially recognized as bankrupt,” Kennedy declared, referring to recent reforms by Nikita Khrushchev. “Economic and political variation and dissent are appearing, for example, in Poland and and Romania, and the Soviet Union itself! The growing emphasis on scientific- and industrial achievement has been accompanied by increased education, and by intellectual ferment.”
“[T]he very nature of (our) modern technological society requires human initiative and the diversity of free minds,” Kennedy said, calling Eastern Cold War-era societies “an anachronism.”
‘(Truth) requires us to face facts as they are; and not to involve ourselves in self-deception…. If we are to work for the future of (this) city, let us deal with the realities as they actually are, not as they might’ve been, and not as we wish they were….’
— John F. Kennedy (at FU, Berlin)
“Like the division of Germany and of Europe,” he said, “it’s against the tide of history.” Further, he said, “the pace of decolonization has quickened in Africa.”
“The people of the developing nations have intensified their pursuit of economic and social justice. The people of Eastern Europe, even after eighteen years of oppression, are not immune to change….” Even his own land was feeling the winds of dynamic and fundamental change, the American president said.
“The Negro citizens of my own country have strengthened their own demand for equality and opportunity,” he told Berliners. “And the American people and the American government are going to respond!”
Supported by the West, the emerging “new Europe” was “dynamic, diverse and democratic,” Kennedy said, predicting that Western Europe would “exert an ever-increasing attraction to the people of the East.” Germany and Europe would not be divided forever, he said, seeing some possibility of East-West detente despite the intensity of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union.
“And when the possibilities of reconciliation appear, we in the West will make it clear that we are not hostile to any people or system, providing they choose their own destiny without interfering with the free choice of others.”
Of Liberty, the American president noted a rise of nationalism and the strength of new, emerging post-colonial states.
“And in Africa, in Latin America and Asia, all around the globe, new countries have sprung into existence, determined to maintain their freedom. This has been one of the strongest forces on the side of freedom, and it is a source of satisfaction to me that so many countries of Western Europe recognize this.…”
In the future, he said, the world will rely on “the realities of Western strength; the realities of Western commitment, (and) the realities of Germany, as a nation and the people, without regard to artificial boundaries of barbed wire.”
Turning to Justice, Kennedy spoke specifically of economic justice:
“(J)ustice requires us to do what we can do…to improve the lot- and maintain the hopes of those (people) on the other side (of the Cold War border),” he said, winning more applause. “It is important that the people on the quiet streets of the East be kept in touch with Western society — through all the contacts and communication that can be established, (and) through all the trade that Western security permits.” Whether they see a lot or very little of the West, he said, “what they see must be so bright as to contradict the daily drumbeat of distortion from the East.”
Later, he admitted that re-unification would mean healing wounds and easing suspicions on both sides. Remarkably, he foresaw the task of evening-out economic differences between East and West — and the attraction of policies of austerity.
“The difference in living standards will have to be reduced by leveling up, not down,” he said. “Fair and effective agreements to end the arms race must be reached….”
“You have no higher opportunity, therefore, than to stay here in West Berlin, to contribute your talents and skills to its life, (and) to show your neighbors democracy at work in a growing and productive city, offering freedom and a better life for all. You are helping now by your studies, and by your devotion to freedom and you therefore earn the admiration of your fellow students from wherever they come.”
The entire speech is so good. Please allow me to step back, and let John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) speak on his own.
“Today, I've had a chance to see all of this myself,” he said, praising the “housing, and factories, and office buildings and commerce and a vigorous academic and scientific life, here in this community.”
“I've seen the people of this city, and I think that all of us who have come here know that the morale of this city is high, the standard of living is high, the faith in the future is high, and that this is not merely an isolated outpost, cut off from the world, cut off from the West. Students come here from many countries and I hope more will come, especially from Africa and Asia. Those of you who may return from study here to other parts of Western Europe, will still be helping to forge a society which most of those (people) across the wall yearn to join. The Federal Republic of Germany — as all of us know from our visit, better than ever — has created a free and dynamic economy from the disasters of defeat; and a bulwark of freedom from the ruins of tyranny.”
Kennedy boldly told Berliners that it was “not too early to think, once again, in terms of all of Europe.”
“West Berlin and West Germany have dedicated and demonstrated their commitment to the liberty of the human mind, (to) the welfare of the community, and to peace among nations. They offer social and economic security and progress for their citizens. And all this has been accomplished — and this is the important point — not only because of their economic plan and capacity, but because of their commitment to democracy, because economic well-being and democracy must go hand-in-hand!”
This was an amazingly visionary speech that Kennedy wrote and delivered in Berlin in 1963. Perhaps for it’s having been delivered here, it is also one of the least-noted in American history texts.
“These changes will not come today or tomorrow, but our efforts toward a real settlement (between East and West) must continue undiminished. As I said this morning, I am not impressed by the opportunities open to ‘popular fronts’ around the world. I do not believe that any democrat may successfully ride that tiger. But I do believe in the necessity of great powers working together to preserve the human race. Otherwise, we can be destroyed.”
“This process can only be helped by the growing unity of the West. And we must all work toward that unity, for in unity there is strength and that is why I travel to this continent; for the unity of this continent — and any division or weakness only makes our task more difficult.”
“Nor can the West ever negotiate a peaceful reunification of Germany from a divided and uncertain and competitive base. In short, only if they see over a period of time that we are strong and united; that we are vigilant and determined — are others likely to abandon their course of armed aggression or subversion. Only then will genuine, mutually acceptable proposals that reduce hostility have a chance to succeed.”
“This is not an easy course. There is no easy course to the reunification of Germany, the reconstitution of Europe. But life is never easy. There’s work to be done, and obligations to be met; obligations to Truth, to Justice, and to Liberty! …Thank you.”
SOURCES:
https://www.berlin.de/geschichte/john-f-kennedy-in-berlin/8482382-8481929-rede-an-der-freien-universitaet-berlin.html
Reinhard Friedrich, Freie Universität Berlin, Universitätsarchiv, Fotosammlung, Sig. 30992
Second photo: FU Berlin Universitätsarchiv Foto-S/ Sig.RF/0130-05/ Foto: Reinhard Friedrich