Barack Obama: Der schwarze Kennedy

Barack Obama – Der schwarze Kennedy' (“Barack Obama – The Black Kennedy”) is a best-selling German book by journalist Christoph von Marschall . (Orell Füssli, Zürich 2007, ISBN 978-3-280-06108-4) The book was written by von Marschall while he spent much of 2007 travelling with the Barack Obama presidential campaign as a reporter with the Berlin newspaper Der Tagesspiegel. It covers Obama’s life from his childhood, through his college and early career, his social activism in Chicago, and his political career including his run for the presidency. Von Marschall sums up his impressions by saying, “Seine Lebensgeschichte steht für den amerikanischen Traum.” (“His life story stands for the American Dream.”)^[1] The title, which implies a comparison between Obama and John F. Kennedy,seemed gimmicky to some people when the book was published in December 2007. But in the following months many other Germans compared the two men. Kennedy is very popular in Germany, with many recalling his famous statement, “Ich bin ein Berliner" (“I am a Berliner”)– given in West Berlin in 1963 at the height of the Cold War.^[2] Barack Obama – Der schwarze Kennedy has been credited with helping to inspire interest in and support for Obama among people in Germany. Von Marschall, however, pointed out in some interviews that Obama’s Democratic Party rival Hillary Clinton and her husband President Bill Clinton were also popular in Germany and in the rest of Europe. ^[3][4]