Critique of Presentation by Czech Republic RPCV Michael Luick-Thrams
Darin Gully
Professor Turchen
SPCM 310
November 18, 2003
Critique of Michael Luick-Thrams
Caption: from left to right: John C. Fitzpatrick, HI Board of Directors Vice President, Dr. Michael Luick -Thrams, and HI Executive Director, Dr. Chris Rossi
Historian Michael Luick-Thrams visited USD on November 18, 2003, to give a presentation about the history of Berlin, Germany and how it has affected its modern day image. His speech was quite entertaining because he not only had good attention-getting material, but he also utilized a Powerpoint presentation as well as a video to give us a first-hand account of what Berlin was like during WWII and what Berlin is like in 2003.
He began his speech with a very polite and sincere opening, which included the fact that his partner had just suffered a death in the family and that he had to present alone tonight. The next thing he did was explain the significance of his topic, which I found interesting since most speakers fail to state their reason for presenting; most just assume that we attend a lecture or speaking event because we care enough for the topic. Concurrently, Michael discussed the history of Berlin and focused much of his time on the population changes that have occurred within the city. He said that the population has exploded from about 80,000 in the mid-1860s to around 4 million in 1930. That meant that vast amounts of foreigners had immigrated to the city and gave it a unique identity. In fact, he said that a common claim in Germany is that there are more Turks in the city of Berlin than there are in Ankara, the capital of Turkey. He mentioned that Berlin now resembles a European version of New York City in that Berlin has many small shops, cafés, and other things of that sort.
In 2003, though, Berlin is still trying to find its own identity. There are many impoverished remnants of the Cold War and Germany as a whole is still in a quagmire of debt. One example Michael mentioned was that many of the elderly lost their state-funded pensions when East Germany collapsed and lost just about everything they had spent their lives working for.
I found his speaking to be very effective. He is a PhD in the study of German and has visited the country many times between 1985 and the present, so his credibility is quite high. He also had appropriate attire on and had an extensive vocabulary which made him seem quite knowledgeable and intelligent for the event. All in all, it was a very interesting speech with a pair of excellent visual aides that further enhanced his speech.
