[1] The book was written by Marschall while he spent much of 2007 travelling with Barack Obama 2008 presidential campaign as a reporter for the Berlin newspaper Der Tagesspiegel.

It covers Obama's life from his childhood, through his college years, his time as a community organizer in Chicago, Illinois, and his political career including his 2008 presidential campaign.

")[2] The title of the book, which implies a close similarity between Obama and John F. Kennedy, seemed gimmicky to some people when it was published in December 2007.

However, in the following months many other Germans compared the two men and expressed hope that an Obama presidency would bring better relations between the United States and Europe.

Steffen Hallaschka, a moderator for Germany's NDR TV, said: "Germans in the '60s projected a lot of hope and fantasies on Kennedy.