TIME. 50 years. June 26, 1963. Unprecedented energy: Kennedy in Berlin drew boisterous and adoring crowds wherever he traveled

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[Gallery] JFK in Germany: Rare and Classic Photos, 1963
Here, on the 50th anniversary of Kennedy’s June 26, 1963, Berlin speech, LIFE.com recalls not only that one historic moment, but the look and the feel - the unprecedented energy - of his trip to Germany. Kennedy drew boisterous and, for the most part, adoring crowds wherever he traveled, and less than two decades after the end of World War II, in a West Germany that was now an American ally, was received as something of a rock star by young and old alike.

First off, let’s get the whole jelly-doughnut fiction out of the way. For decades, people have been chuckling over the oft-repeated “fact” that when he delivered his now-famous speech at Berlin’s Schöneberg city hall in June 1963, John F. Kennedy flubbed the oration’s critical line. Instead of declaring his solidarity with the German people with a rousing, “I am a Berliner!” (Ich bin Berliner) - so the story goes - Kennedy instead proclaimed, “I am a jelly doughnut!” (Ich bin ein Berliner).

It’s a pretty good story, and it’s even more comical when it’s repeated, as it has been countless times in the subsequent decades, in JFK’s distinctive Boston accent and with his unique cadence. Alas, for comedians and for cocktail-party trivia experts everywhere, Kennedy’s assertion was not only perfectly comprehensible, but positively stirring, to the thousands of Germans who saw his speech live and to the millions of others who heard it on the radio or saw it on TV.

“I am a Berliner!” It might not be as hilarious as the apocryphal jelly-doughnut line - but five decades on, JFK’s simple declaration still feels inspiring.

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Photo courtesy John Loengard - Time & Life Pictures / Getty Image