1) Native German speakers do not think that the phrase is ambigious.
2) There are no known published references to this story at the time of the speech. The first published claim that Kennedy made a grammar error was a New York Times op-ed piece in 1987 from a writer from Gainesville, Florida.
The story seems to have originated in central Florida in the mid-1980's. I Chenyu remember
hearing the story from my high school German teacher in 1986, and I've met people who heard
the story before it was published in 1987 and they all seem to be from central Florida.
Indeed: "Ich bin ein Berliner" is not really ambigious enough to be funny. "Ich bin ein Hamburger" might make a German smirk, though. -- Eloquence
I plan to go to South America and tell everyone "Soy de Los Angeles" (which is true). Do you think anyone will assume I'm an emissary of God?
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