July 24 (Bloomberg) -- Berlin's city center took on the atmosphere of a rock concert as more than 200,000 people jammed the German capital's Tiergarten park to hear U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Spectators chanted ``yes we can,'' Obama's catchphrase, as the 46-year-old senator stressed the shared ``burdens of global citizenship'' that bind the U.S. and Europe. Beer and sausage vendors lining the park provided refreshments.

``He's extremely charismatic -- I've never seen anybody like this,'' said Wolfgang Zuchowsky, a 73-year-old retired police officer from Berlin. ``It's much better than what we've seen from the American style in the last few years, quite a bit more intellectual than the current president.''

The 220-foot (67-meter) Victory Column towered above the Democratic senator, who spoke facing the Brandenburg Gate, the historic monument that Chancellor Angela Merkel steered him away from using as the site of his speech. One sign held up said, ``Obama for Chancellor.''

``I thought he was very good,'' said Julian Metz, a 27-year- old architecture student in Berlin who shook Obama's hand after the speech. ``It was a great feeling to touch him.''

The speech drew parallels to those of American presidents past, notably Ronald Reagan's 1987 entreaty to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to ``tear down this wall'' and John F. Kennedy's claim -- then in front of the Schoeneberg City Hall in 1963 -- that he was one of them, ``Ich bin ein Berliner.''

`Man of Goodwill'

The Berliners of 2008, for their part, wanted as much of Obama as possible. Sixty-two percent of Germans want him to be the next U.S. president, according to a Gallup poll released yesterday.

``He's young and he's a boy with integrity,'' said Annegret Boesken, 60, a retiree from the western German town of Pruem. ``I think he's a man of goodwill. Especially from my generation, it's a change for a new chapter in U.S.-German relations.''

Earlier in the day, thousands thronged behind barriers in front of the Hotel Adlon to try and get a glimpse of him.

The daily Berliner Zeitung's headline ran: ``Obama ist ein Berliner -- fuer einen Tag,'' or ``Obama is a Berliner, for a day.'' In the tabloid Bild-Zeitung the headline, ``Do an Obama for Us,'' was meant as a demand to German politicians to adopt Obama's charisma as well as his cropped coif.

Obama's tour of the once-divided city was confined mostly to the chancellery, the foreign ministry, the Adlon and the Tiergarten. He gave no official statements following his meetings with Merkel, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Berlin's mayor, Klaus Wowereit.

``I love Berlin,'' Obama told a reporter as he signed autographs while exiting the foreign ministry alongside Steinmeier. Mayor Wowereit later presented Obama with a model of the city's trademark bear, a glazed porcelain figurine with its hulking arms raised, as if ready to pounce.

``It's strong,'' Obama told the mayor. ``I'll need it for the next three months -- then eight years.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Patrick Donahue in Berlin at at pdonahue1@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: July 24, 2008 15:57 EDT