In 1963, John F. Kennedy addressed a crowd in front of Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, a speech that ended with the famous words, “Ich bin ein Berliner”.

When Barack Obama visits Berlin later this month, he wants to make a speech at the same spot. But the German government is divided over the issue, with Chancellor Angela Merkel opposing the idea.

So far, only elected US presidents have been allowed to make speeches in front of Berlin’s historic landmark.

From The Local:

[T]he question of where Obama might give a speech on his campaign stop in Berlin is causing tension between Merkel and Berlin’s Mayor Wowereit, who said on Tuesday he would be happy to see Obama speak at the Brandenburg Gate. Some politicians and journalists have accused Wowereit of having selfish reasons for encouraging Berlin senate approval of the speech, though.

“Do you think Wowi [Wowereit’s nickname] would let the opportunity to appear with Barack Obama go by?” Green Party deputy floor leader Jürgen Trittin said on German broadcaster N24 recently. “I think he’s saying, ‘He should go on, I’ll be in the photo, and everything will be great’.”

Obama has also been accused of wanting to use the Brandenburg Gate to cultivate media hype that he is the next JFK. “With the planned speech in Berlin at the Brandenburg gate, Obama is aiming for the Kennedy effect,” German news magazine Der Spiegel‘s Washington correspondent Marc Pitzke wrote on Tuesday.

Update: I made a mistake. Kennedy did not give his famous speech at Brandenburg Gate, he gave it at Rathaus Schöneberg.