List of quotes featuring Berlin

This articles shows a list of quotes featuring Berlin, the capital city of Germany.
1800-1900
"Du bist verrückt mein Kind, du mußt nach Berlin." ("You are crazy, my child. You must go to Berlin.")
(Franz von Suppe, composer, 1819-1895)
"Berlin ist mehr ein Weltteil als eine Stadt" ("Berlin is rather a part of the world than a city")
(Jean Paul, writer, 1800)
"Ein Berliner Witz ist mehr wert als eine schöne Gegend!" ("Berlin witticism is worth more than a beautiful countryside!")
(Georg W. F. Hegel, philosopher, 1830)
"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)
"Berlin ist unser Jerusalem !" ("Berlin is our Jerusalem !")
(Clarion call of the German Jewish reformist movement, 1845)
"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)
1900-1945
"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)
"Thus it transpired that even Berlin could be mysterious. Within the linden's bloom the streetlight winks. A dark and honeyed hush envelops us." (Poem by Vladimir Nabokov, author of The Gift,
1938)
"Die Berliner sind unfreundlich und rücksichtslos, ruppig und rechthaberisch, Berlin ist abstoßend, laut, dreckig und grau, Baustellen und verstopfte Straßen, wo man geht und steht - aber mir tun alle Menschen leid, die nicht hier leben können!"
("The Berliners are unfriendly and inconsiderate, gruff and self-opinionated, Berlin is repulsive, loud, dirty and grey, construction works and blocked streets where you stop and go. But I feel sorry for those people who can not live here!")
(Anneliese Bödecker, Berlin philanthropist and social worker, born in 1932)
1945-1990
"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)
"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)
"Ich bin ein Berliner."("I am a citizen of Berlin")
(John F. Kennedy, President of the USA, 1963 while visiting Berlin)
"Here in Berlin, one cannot help being aware that you are the hub around which turns the wheel of history. ... If ever there were a people who should be constantly sensitive to their destiny, the people of Berlin, East and West, should be they."
(Martin Luther King Jr., a leader in the Civil Rights Movement, 1964 while visiting West and East Berlin)
"The greatest cultural extravaganza that one could imagine." (David Bowie, singer, on 1970s Berlin)
"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"
(Ronald Reagan, President of the United States, speech at the Brandenburg Gate, 1987)
1990-today
"Paris is always Paris and Berlin is never Berlin!"
(Jack Lang, French former culture minister, talking about how fast Berlin is changing, 2001)
"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)
"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.)

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