Berlin Quotes: Capturing the Spirit of the City

"But with the Berlin, I was able to allow him to get near, but not quite near enough, and I knew where to draw the line with the fortresses I had set up"

Vladimir Kramnik, Celebrity

"I remember an article, I can't recall who by, it was after the fall of the Berlin Wall, which said that now the Wall was down, there could be no more class war. Only someone with money could ever say such a thing"

Claude Chabrol, Director

"All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin. And therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words "Ich bin ein Berliner!""

John F. Kennedy, President

"People of Berlin - people of the world - this is our moment. This is our time"

Barack Obama, President

"Only through acknowledgment of the erasure and void of Jewish life can the history of Berlin and Europe have a human future"

Daniel Libeskind, Architect

"Well, right now, I'm very fascinated with 1920s Berlin. I mean, probably the more interesting thing would be to go to the beginning of civilization or precivilization - like polytheistic times. It would be interesting to see what came before modern religion and culture - what circumstances created the environment or the need for it"

Natalie Portman, Actress

"And of course I like Berlin a lot. It's such an interesting city"

Daniel Libeskind, Architect

"At some point he seemed to lose all confidence trying to break down the Berlin Wall. He was still fighting as only Kasparov can, but I could see it in his eyes that he knew he wasn't going to win one of these games"

Vladimir Kramnik, Celebrity

"With the Berlin I was able to set up a fortress that he could come near but not breach"

Vladimir Kramnik, Celebrity

"The Berlin Defence suited my strategy for the match. I had a defensive strategy - Actually, I had in my pocket some other sharper stuff to fall back on - but first I wanted to try the defensive strategy with Black and it worked so well"

Vladimir Kramnik, Celebrity

"I did a concert... in September with the Berlin Philharmonic... They're great musicians, and there's always something to learn from them"

Cecilia Bartoli, Musician

"The Berlin Wall go down, that was the most wonderful thing that could happen, absolutely. I celebrated with everybody in Berlin that day when the Wall was down"

Nana Mouskouri, Musician

"I've never been anywhere in my life like it and I only really noticed it when I returned to Los Angeles and then Berlin. Everybody is much better off in these places, there is not poverty like in Cuba, but everybody complains about things"

Wim Wenders, Director

"I worked on scores. I went to the musical library in Berlin which is very famous. I discovered that we had scores of Beethoven, printed scores of Beethoven, that are full of mistakes. Not the wrong or false notes, but the wrong dynamic, understandable things"

Kurt Masur, Musician

"Predicting has a spotty record in science fiction. I've had some failures. On the other hand, I also predicted the fall of the Berlin Wall and the rise of fundamentalist Islam... and I'm not happy to be right in all of those cases"

David Brin, Author

"We feel very honored to have been offered the responsibility to host this great event, Berlin is a wonderful city that is developing at a tremendous rate, and this decision means that we can now prepare to welcome the world's best athletes to a fascinating place"

Otto Schily, Public Servant

"I liked Germany; I'm not into Berlin, it's too huge and empty and imposing, but Munich was good"

Graham Coxon, Musician

"The church of St. Peter at Berlin, notwithstanding the total difference between them in the style of building, appears in some respects to have a great resemblance to St. Paul's in London"

Karl Philipp Moritz, Author

"In October, 1865, occurred what was, in my eyes, the greatest event in the history of the observatory. The new transit circle arrived from Berlin in its boxes"

Simon Newcomb, Mathematician

"On the little money I had collected I lived in Berlin very cheaply, ate very cheaply. And already in 1920 I saved the first salaries I received to go to Munich"

Josef Albers, Artist

"I was lucky because on the morning after the burning of the Reichstag I left my home very early to catch a train to Berlin for the conference of our student organization and that is the only reason why I escaped arrest"

Klaus Fuchs, Physicist

"I'll never forget the first screening at the Berlin Film Festival. As soon as the film ended there was an outbreak of booing, which made us look at each other with some surprise"

John Schlesinger, Director

"The plan shows that the twenty million people in the German democratic Republic and in the democratic sector of Berlin think only of peace, and that they are working for freedom and peaceful prosperity"

Walter Ulbricht, Politician

"When I went back to visit my native Berlin after World War II, I noticed that the only thing I really remembered from my childhood Berlin days is the shoe store"

Lukas Foss, Composer

"I create my own lyrics. I have a great band. I have a drummer from East Berlin"

Nina Hagen, Musician

"The particular feature of Berlin - well, all you need to do is look at the map: the geographical position of the city right in the heart of Europe, and the separation of the most powerful two blocs we've ever had in history, which went all the way through Germany"

Markus Wolf, Public Servant

"I remember Berlin. Berlin to me was the star of the film. I loved for six months that we filmed there"

Marton Csokas, Actor

"I had been involved in U.S. intelligence in Berlin, Germany, while in the military and had worked with a contact with the Central Intelligence Agency office there"

George J. Mitchell, Politician

"The Berlin Wall wasn't the only barrier to fall after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. Traditional barriers to the flow of money, trade, people and ideas also fell"

Fareed Zakaria, Journalist

"In Germany air became generally accepted Berlin in this area. It operated with 45 airplanes within the Low Cost range from Germany, and is one the most successful carriers in Europe"

Niki Lauda, Athlete

"Born Berlin 1931, Germany, father a British diplomat, mother an American artist. Educated at various schools all over the world. 1958 Settled down to live in London. 1966 Became interested in photography through photographing my young children. No formal training"

Fay Godwin, Photographer

"It's a different outlook, and one that I understand. When you are a former member of the Warsaw Pact, when you have lived behind the Berlin Wall, when you have experienced the communist systems that existed in these countries, for them, the West represents hope"

Jean-Pierre Raffarin, Politician

"Whoever lives in Berlin note, and doesn't die of Liberalism, will never die of vexation!"

Ferdinand Lassalle, Politician

"It's always the small people who change things. It's never the politicians or the big guys. I mean, who pulled down the Berlin wall? It was all the people in the streets. The specialists didn't have a clue the day before"

Luc Besson, Director

"Even in November 1938, after five years of anti-Semitic legislation and persecution, they still owned, according to the Times correspondent in Berlin, something like a third of the real property in the Reich"

Arthur Bryant, Historian

"I studied German at school. I lived in Berlin for two years and had a German girlfriend for five years, so I don't find speaking German particularly difficult. Singing was slightly more difficult"

Martin Gore, Musician

"The world has fundamentally changed. It fundamentally changed when the Berlin Wall came down and the 'evil empire' ceased to exist. We are engaged around the world whether we like it or not"

Robert Foster Bennett, Politician

"No one can compare us to the apartheid regime. It's not like in South Africa between the blacks and the whites who belong to the same nation, or in Berlin where you find parents living on the eastern side and their children in the western side"

Silvan Shalom, Politician

"I was always drawn to Broadway musicals, and obviously composers like Gershwin, Rodgers, Berlin and Porter were writing music that I found wildly impressive"

Marvin Hamlisch, Composer

"In Berlin I especially enjoyed the orchestral concerts, and I attended a large number of them. I formed the acquaintance of a good many musicians, several of whom spoke of my playing in high terms"

James Weldon Johnson, Poet

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