See also JFK's famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech, which is often (falsely) claimed to be German for "I'm a Jelly Donut". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ich_bin_ein_Berliner#Jelly_doug...
>>"Ich bin ein Berliner" was not only correct, but the only way to express what the President wanted to say.
However! What I supplied was (one anecdote of) the reaction of a native German speaker who heard the line themselves. Their reaction was in line with the supposed myth. So no matter how smugly people today might denounce that as a myth, there were those in the intended audience whose reactions were exactly in line with the supposed myth. Which, of course, makes it not so much of a myth.
People hear what they want to hear.
> Here is where President Kennedy announced, Ich bin ein Berliner, and thereby amused the city's populace because in the local parlance a Berliner is a doughnut.
and
> What they did not know, but could easily have found out, was that such citizens never refer to themselves as 'Berliners.'
In Berlin itself, a Berliner is actually called "Pfannkuchen", so while it might have amused other Germans, that wouldn't apply to citizens of Berlin themselves, which do in fact call themselves "Berliner".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berliner_(doughnut)
> While called Berliner (Ballen) in Northern and Western Germany as well as in Switzerland, the Berliners themselves and residents of Brandenburg, Western Pomerania, Saxony-Anhalt and Saxony know them as Pfannkuchen, which in the rest of Germany generally means pancakes; pancakes are known there as Eierkuchen ("egg cakes").
In the context it's presented, I think it would have to actually mean jelly donut, not be a nickname. And such a thing is in fact false.
I just discovered them last week. Worth a listen