Dr. Walther Lichem first came to Salzburg in 1962 as a Fellow with the American Studies Program. He reflects on his time with the Seminar, and the influence the six-week stay had on his life and career.

"My time at the Seminar was decisive. It defined my further steps in my life. The American university professors were extraordinary, they were of professional quality and with a perspective of the world and of our common future as I had never met before. I was profoundly interested in acquiring the opportunity of studying at an American university and move from my juridical studies to social sciences, especially political science which was not available on any Austrian university. There was a level of intellectuality there (the Seminar). I wouldn't have been able to meet certain professors without SGS. The Salzburg Seminar was the beginning of re-orienting my brain.

I was highly pleased and honoured receiving a Fulbright scholarship for studying at the University of North Carolina (MA). I then got an internship at the UN Secretariat in New York where I spent a two months, and then was recruited as a permanent staff member. I spent more than eight years at the UN Secretariat in New York, with special missions to Moscow, Tbilisi, Mendoza and the Senegal River Development Organisation in Dakar. After joining the Austrian diplomatic service, a key focus of my work in the Foreign Ministry in international organisations and conferences remained the UN system of cooperation and related institutions. 

All of this I thank my initial inspiration which I received at the Salzburg Seminar!"