Lichtblick-Kino

On October 16, 2025, music icon Nico, alias Christa Päffgen, would have celebrated her 87^th birthday. Traditionally, Berlin musician and Nico’s long-time companion and collaborator Lutz Graf-Ulbrich, aka Lüül, commemorates this day at Lichtblick-Kino.

Together with film and theater director, writer, and radio play author Werner Fritsch, Graf-Ulbrich has conceived an evening dedicated to Nico – as phenomenon and private person.
Werner Fritsch will read his monologue “Nico. Sphinx aus Eis” (Nico. Sphinx of Ice). Based on motifs from “Greek mythology” (Orpheus and Eurydice), Fritsch erects a monument to the inscrutable Nico in his monologue, revealing her roots and abysses and allowing her to speak – through his language.
The text performances will be framed by Lutz Graf-Ulbrich’s musical interludes on electric guitar.

This will be followed by a dialogue in which Werner Fritsch talks about Nico and his work and Lutz Graf-Ulbrich recounts his time with Nico.

Lutz Graf-Ulbrich aka Lüül played in German “Krautrock” bands such as Agitation Free and Ash Ra Tempel/Ashra. He accompanied Nico as a guitarist in the 1970s in Europe, USA, and Canada. He wrote the song “Reich der Träume” (Realm of Dreams) for her, which she sang on his debut LP Lüül (1981). With Ash Ra Tempel, he contributed to the soundtrack of Philippe Garrel’s film “Le Berceau de Cristal” (with Nico in a main role).

Lüül organized Nico’s last concert for the festival “Fata Morgana – Wüstenklänge im Planetarium” (Fata Morgana – Desert Sounds in the Planetarium) in Berlin in 1988 (released on CD in 1996 under his production). After Nico died two months later, he organized her funeral and has been the caretaker of her grave ever since. He also participated in Susanne Ofteringer’s award-winning documentary film Nico-Icon and initiated the tribute festival “Nico 70/20” in Berlin in 2008.

In 2015, Graf-Ulbrich published his book “Nico – Im Schatten der Mondgöttin” (Nico – In the Shadow of the Moon Goddess). In these memoirs, he recounts their first meeting, how he fell in love with her in the 1970s, and how this encounter developed into a stormy on-and-off love affair, artistic collaboration, and lifelong friendship. He regularly performs multimedia readings from Nico – Im Schatten der Mondgöttin about his time with this legendary artist.

Werner Fritsch, born in Waldsassen / Upper Palatinate in 1960, published his award-winning first novel “Cherubim” in 1987. This was followed by further prose works such as “Steinbruch” and “Stechapfel”. His numerous stage plays include “Chroma”, “Hydra Krieg”, “Bach”, and “Wondreber Totentanz”, as well as the monologues “Sense”, “Jenseits”, and “Das Rad des Glücks”, which were realized on stage, for radio, or cinema.

His film “Das sind die Gewitter in der Natur“ (These Are the Tempests in Nature) in 1988 marked the beginning of his extensive film work, which, in addition to other feature films and various short films, currently culminates in the film poem cycle “Faust Sonnengesang” (Faust Song of the Sun). Of the planned eight parts, which will have a total running time of 24 hours, four have already been completed.

In his 2003 monologue “Nico. Sphinx aus Eis” (Nico. Sphinx of Ice), he explores the life and work of German pop icon Nico. The work was produced as a radio play and stage play and published as a book by Suhrkamp Verlag. The author reported that the music of The Velvet Underground, and Nico in particular, has accompanied and fascinated him since 1973, when he was 13 years old.