I regret to inform you that my father Gecko Werner Kaufmann, after a colourful life went peacefully to sleep yesterday, with a glass of red wine in his hand.
Best regards Yours, Teddy Kaufmann, 27.VII.2014

Thoughts on the death of Werner Gecko Kaufmann

He died after a long illness on Saturday, July 26, 2014 at the age of 84.

Saying goodbye to a longtime friend always means looking back at many, so very many years, that you shared together or as part of clubs and so on.

Gecko, as he always introduced himself, was an enthusiastic film maker right up to the final day who experienced in his many years pretty much all life's highs and lows like no one else. So far as UNICA was concerned, he never wanted to miss a special occasion, but it depended on a medical decision, which he could not override. At my last meeting with him, a few weeks ago, he told me that unfortunately he could not come to the UNICA in  Piestany. Now we know that this was not just a matter of leg problems as he repeatedly claimed.

Between 1964 -1998, Gecko was for 26 years a member of the Committee of UNICA. Until his death, he was also a member of the film club of Frauenfeld, Winterthur (CH) and to my knowledge in clubs in the Süddeutsche area. Also in the Swiss national association, he served as treasurer. He was an avid filmmaker in all formats and every year sent one or more entries to club competitions.

With the death of the Gecko world loses a veteran filmmaker who was a role model for many.

Everyone who knew Gecko Kaufmann will keep him in their hearts.

Max Hänsli, Honorary President of UNICA.

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Werner ("Gecko") Kaufmann was treasurer of UNICA 1964 to 1997.

He was nominated honorary member of the UNICA at the General Assembly of 1997 in Warsaw.

He was one of the founders of the "Cinematic Cirkel Liechtenstein CCL" - a free, pseudo-intellectual organization, a small private group whose members did not to take themselves seriously. Chatting and joking were their main characteristics. This group later developed to become the Friends of UNICA.

Our picture above shows Gecko with his beloved wife, Paulette, beside the Traunsee in 2006.