Remembering its chequered past

Tourists pose with pretend guards at the Checkpoint Charlie station. (Steve Haggerty/MCT)

This summer, Berlin commemorates the 50th anniversary of former US president John F. Kennedy’s visit.

IT WAS 50 years ago, an old man’s memory. But Berliners haven’t forgotten the American president’s visit in 1963, nor the speech that offered so much hope. A promise of support for West Germans living in Berlin’s free but beleaguered American sector, they were heard around the world.