54Presidential Correspondence

1963In July 1963, Axel Springer received a letter from U.S. President John F. Kennedy thanking him for the English-language copy of a color documentation of Kennedy’s visit to Germany in June of that year. Kennedy expressed his admiration for the publisher’s decision to build his publishing house directly on the border. During the famous visit to Berlin, the President also drove past the construction site in an open limousine. On the roof of the already completed printing plant, he could read the banner: “Welcome, Mr. President! Here at the Wall, hope, confidence and faith are building Berlin’s largest press district.”