FACTBOX: Berlin visits by U.S. politicians

(Reuters) - Tens of thousands of Germans attended the speech on Thursday by U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama at the "Victory Column" in Berlin's Tiergarten park.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the landmark Brandenburg Gate -- a backdrop for President Ronald Reagan in a famous speech -- was a place for presidents, not candidates to speak. Her advisers tried to convince the Obama campaign to hold the speech at a university or other low-key location.

Here is a list of U.S. political moments in Berlin.

* JOHN F. KENNEDY visited West Berlin in June 1963, just under two years after the Wall was put up in August 1961. His speech to a huge crowd in front of the city hall included the famous line: "All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin. And therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words 'Ich bin ein Berliner' (I am a Berliner)"

* RICHARD NIXON visited West Berlin in 1969, going to the Charlottenburg palace and renewing a promise the United States would protect Berlin's freedom.

* JIMMY CARTER visited West Berlin in 1978. He expressed hope in a speech that the Wall would soon fall and delivered a rhyme in German "Was immer sei, Berlin bleibt frei." (No matter what, Berlin will always remain free).

* RONALD REAGAN visited West Berlin twice, including a 1982 journey to the Checkpoint Charlie border crossing where American and Soviet tanks had squared off shortly after the Berlin Wall was built in 1961. In June 1987 he made a speech at the Brandenburg Gate, symbol of Berlin's east-west division, in which he said: "Mr Gorbachev, if you seek peace and prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

* BILL CLINTON visited Berlin three times, in 1994, 1998 and 2000. On July 12, 1994, he walked through the Brandenburg Gate and spoke to 50,000 cheering Berliners, saying: "Berliners, you have won your long struggle. You have proved that no wall can forever contain the mighty power of freedom".

* GEORGE W. BUSH addressed the German parliament in Berlin on May 2002, months after the September 11 attacks, and said: "In this war we defend not just America or Europe. We are defending civilization itself". He later told reporters after a meeting the Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder: "I told the chancellor that I have no war plans on my desk, which is the truth," Bush said, in reference to growing concerns over the looming Iraq war.

* OTHERS

-- Lyndon Johnson visited West Berlin when he was serving as vice president. Harry Truman, president from 1945-1953, visited Berlin in 1945 for the post-war Potsdam conference. Dwight Eisenhower, 1953-1961, and Gerald Ford, 1974-1977, never visited West Berlin during their presidencies.

-- George H.W. Bush visited the western cities of Bonn and Mainz in May 1989, just six months before the fall of the Berlin Wall. He called for freedom for the people of eastern Europe and spoke of Germany and United States as "partners in leadership".