Quotes featuring Berlin

Kennedy meeting with West Berlin mayor Willy Brandt, March 1961

"Berlin! Berlin! Wir fahren nach Berlin!." ("Berlin! Berlin! We're going to Berlin!")

( A Chant during the World Cup in 2006. Also usually chanted by supporters of the DFB-Pokal-finalists before the final in Berlin.

"Berlin ist arm, aber sexy." ("Berlin is poor, but sexy.")

(Klaus Wowereit, Governing Mayor, in a television interview, 2004)

“Berlin combines the culture of New York, the traffic system of Tokyo, the nature of Seattle, and the historical treasures of, well, Berlin.”

(Hiroshi Motomura, US Law professor, 2004)

"Paris is always Paris and Berlin is never Berlin!"

(Jack Lang, French former culture minister, talking about how fast Berlin is changing, 2001)

"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

(Ronald Reagan, President of the United States, speech at the Brandenburg Gate, 1987)

"Ich bin ein Berliner."("I am a citizen of Berlin")

(John F. Kennedy, President of the USA, 1963 while visiting Berlin)

"Berlin is the testicle of the West. When I want the West to scream, I squeeze on Berlin."

(Nikita Khrushchev, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Aug. 24, 1963, speech in Yugoslavia)

"Niemand hat die Absicht, eine Mauer zu errichten!" ("Nobody intends to put up a wall!")

(Walter Ulbricht, Leader of the GDR, June 15th 1961 - 2 months before the Berlin Wall was built)

"Ihr Völker der Welt ... Schaut auf diese Stadt und erkennt, dass ihr diese Stadt und dieses Volk nicht preisgeben dürft, nicht preisgeben könnt!" ("People of this world … look upon this city and see that you should not and cannot abandon this city and this people!")

(Ernst Reuter, Governing Mayor during the Berlin blockade, speech from September 9, 1948 (German))

"Ich hab noch einen Koffer in Berlin" ("I still keep a suitcase in Berlin")

(Song by Marlene Dietrich in 1957, actress and singer born 1901 in Berlin-Schöneberg)

"Whoever controls Berlin controls Germany and whoever controls Germany controls Europe."

(Vladimir Lenin (1870 – 1924), Politician)

"Berlin ist eine Stadt, verdammt dazu, ewig zu werden, niemals zu sein" ("Berlin is a city condemned forever to becoming and never to being.")

(Karl Scheffler, author of Berlin: Ein Stadtschicksal, 1910 )

"Berlin is the newest city I have come across. Even Chicago would appear old and gray in comparison."

(Mark Twain, US Writer, Chicago Daily Tribune, 1892)

"What could have possessed people to found a city in the middle of all this sand?"

(Stendhal (1783 – 1842), French writer who traveled extensively in Germany and elsewhere)

"The greatest cultural extravaganza that one could imagine."

(David Bowie, singer, on 1970s Berlin)

"Berlin ist mehr ein Weltteil als eine Stadt" ("Berlin is rather a part of the world than a city")

(Jean Paul, writer, 1800)

"Berlin is a pulsing, exciting city with so many varied and distinctive neighborhoods, iconic history all around, great food at all levels and from every corner of the world ... an excellent place to set up camp and make a great record."

(R.E.M. who recorded their new album in Berlin, 2010)

(source;wikipedia)