In Germany, and particularly in Berlin, a Berliner is a cake doughnut stuffed with jam and coated with sugar. It's a very popular treat sold in lots of sidewalk stands.

He then learned that "Berliner" referred not to a person from Berlin, but to a jelly donut -- a humiliating mistake, and surely the worst thing that could possibly happen to John F. Kennedy in 1963.

George 2005-06-16 Although a "Berliner" is also a type of jelly doughnut, in the context used by JFK it could not have been misunderstood any more than if I told you "I am a danish" in English.

People from Berlin don't call doughnuts Berliner we say Pfannkuchen. So I'm a Berliner means I am from Berlin and not I'm a doughnut. Berliner is not a doughnut. Flag this comment ...