On June 26, 1963, JFK delivered his now-famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech to a crowd of more than 100,000 people at the Rudolph Wilde Platz in West Berlin. He saw West Berlin - controlled by western allies and surrounded by Soviet-controlled Eastern Germany - as an important symbol of freedom in the Cold War, and he encouraged West Berliners to remain hopeful despite the imposing presence of the Berlin Wall. He ended his speech with the words: “All free men, wherever they may live, are citize