From the S&S archives:
For some, speech offers sentimental journey

BERLIN — Traudl Stadach closed a historical loop Tuesday afternoon.

The 55-year-old stenographer drove several hours from her native Saarbrucken to Berlin in 1963 to bear witness to President Kennedy's historic visit.

On Tuesday, now a resident of Berlin's Neukolln district, Stadach watched Kennedy's distant successor, Bill Clinton, summon the Germans to new challenges.

Kennedy's dramatic Ich bin ein Berliner address made a lasting impact in Germany, to the point that every school history book mentions it, Stadach said.

Stadach and other Germans on the Pariser Platz said their presence Tuesday was a way to thank the United States for its decades of support against communism.

"I keep coming back to the same thing, but `thanks' is an important word," Stadach said.

Stephanie Kohler, an eighth-grader from Hugo Gaudig-Realschule in the city's Tempelhof district, passed out miniature flags with her classmates. She said she looked forward to seeing Clinton, but not German Chancellor Helmut Kohl.

"I've never seen Kohl laugh, and Bill Clinton laughs a lot," she explained.

Kohl is important too, countered her classmate Bianca Teddendieck, who said she attended to show German-American friendship.

The two girls said their trip to hear the speeches also was part of a school project. Today is their final day of school before summer vacation.

Hans Konietzny, 60, waiting in front of a red and white metal barricade and, occasionally squashed by impatient spectators in back of him, said he went to see Kennedy speak at the Schoneberg City Hall in 1963 "in order to demonstrate the solidarity of Berliners."

Konietzny, a Mariendorf resident who retired July 1 from his job as a postal supervisor, awaited Clinton's appearance Tuesday for a different reason — "to thank America that things have come this far."

Angela Jossner, a teacher, admitted that she once was unenthusiastic about what Konietzny regards as progress.

"I was totally against the reunification. I didn't take part in anything," she said, referring to the joining of East. and West Germany, as well as the two sides of Berlin, in 1990. "Now I see it differently," she added.

Jossner cast a glance at the Brandenburg Gate in front of her, several dozen yards to the West:

"When you think about it as world history, it's wild. Seven years ago the U.S. president (Ronald Reagan) stood on the other side, and now the president is here."