1924–2000
Vice Chairman and Delegate of the Board of Directors of brewery A. Hürlimann AG

The Hürlimann brewery owned or leased dozens of properties and restaurants in Zurich in the early 70ies. I once had a list quoting about 70 Hürlimann properties in my hands. Some of them were in the most prominent locations, like the "Du Nord" near the main train station.

In the case of the restaurant "Weisser Wind" in Oberdorf, it was not quite clear whether it was owned or leased. Anyway, it had one of the largest Restaurant halls in the city center, which even a young person could rent. The 'Weisse Wind' also became famous for its legendary late night jam sessions after the official part of Andre Berner's Zurich Jazz Festival. Our first Bazillus concert took place on December 19, 1969. More concerts followed until 1971. The innkeeper was always happy when Marcel Bernasconi and I rented the hall. The brewery director, Dr. Martin Hürlimann, was often in the smaller saloon on the same floor. This was also the "Zunft zum Weggen" (the bakers' and millers' guild) where Hürlimann was a member.

On April 27, 1971 the first concert with the "Wiebelfetzer Workshop I" took place. My brother Raymund was in charge of the cash register. A gentleman in a suit and tie came to the cash desk and asked if he could speak to Mr. Kennel. Remo said he was Beat Kennel's brother. Mr. Hürlimann had just come from the guild hall on the same floor. He held out an envelope to my brother and asked him to hand it to me. It contained Fr. 1000.-!  A lot of money, just like that, for a couple of young, long-haired people! That was a total turn-on. 

It was the starting point of a nice kind of friendship with Martin Hürlimann. He was an extremely interesting person, historically informed, humorous and always up for a good joke. In house he was very much appreciated by his employees - a well grounded brewery director. 

He travelled all over Europe with his wife and visited old churches always looking to find five-pointed stars on floors and in side rooms. The five-pointed star was the trademark logo of the Hürlimann brewery. He was also very interested in everything that had to do with witches. This might be why there was a "Häxli beer" ("Little witch beer") in the brewery assortment? 

Once, unexpectedly, mail came from France…

A label lovingly detached from the wine bottle, sent between two cardboard boxes.

Hürlimann was also good friends with Sergius Golovin (mythologist and publicist). The brewer just loved musicians. Mario Feurer of the Minstrels told funny stories of humid and merry evenings with the brewery boss in beer tents. Whenever he showed up in the lower stables with his beer men (the ones with the huge Hürlimann steeds), there was great joy. I was there once. 

Martin Hürlimann was the scion of a well established family (brewery since 1836) and it is significant that it was precisely this philanthropic type of person who had initially helped me most to get going with our project at all! 

In 1972, I first launched the project "A Music Center for Zurich" with my old friend, Bazillus co-initiator Dieter Schärer. We were looking for a location for a jazz club that also had additional rooms. Schärer and I examined a total of 34 restaurants between 1972 and 1975. Martin Hürlimann helped us by giving us access to his property portfolio. We even received internal plans and I was able to start drawing in the seating … symbolically. He suggested the "Hubertus" and also his own big restaurant at Beatenplatz. In December 1973, we had almost reached our goal at the restaurant "Du Nord" on Bahnhofplatz(!). The first floor was not profitable and in terms of infrastructure everything was perfect!

Everything was on the best way. But there we still had to do an acoustic test for the health police… Jürg Grau (tp), a guitarist, a double bass player and me on drums played a bit. The acousticians from the health police made measurements in the upper floors and also outside in the traffic(!).

The decision of this authority was devastating. Because of the employees on the top floor, they cannot give us a permit. The health police made us sick once again!

Dieter Schärer was during this time the project office center for everything institutional, like authorities and he was also responsible for all donors. This first, negative decision from the authorities reached Dieter, who then immediately told me the bad news by telephone that the Du Nord project was "down the drain".

Dieter immediately forwarded the official decision to Hürlimann. Hürlimann answered immediately. Shortly thereafter, the "Hürlimann Cult Letter" came to us initiators and a copy to the city president Sigmund Widmer. If you read it today, you can see what a caliber Hürlimann was. 

Response letter from City Councilor Emilie Lieberherr

On July 11, 1974, I learned from Jürg Grau about the large basement room at Albisriederplatz 6. By the end of September 1974, I had signed the lease with the landlord ACAR AG-Autozubehör.

See also Stories > Bazillus Workshop I

We quickly ran out of money to open the first Bazillus Workshop for musicians.

I went to Martin Hürlimann at the brewery on August 26, 1974 and told him that we were having financial difficulties because the authorities were imposing building requirements on us that I, as a private citizen, could not pay. We rebuilt the room with hard labor. Hürlimann disappeared from the conference room at this meeting (7 o'clock in the morning! - oh dear!) and kept me waiting for half an hour. He apologized; it had taken a little longer in the accounting department, sat down and said; "Mr. Kennel; in order for you to be able to continue at all now, I now give you this envelope." (I'll never forget the moment he pulled the envelope out of his noble gentleman's jacket…) I open it and there were five "ANTS" inside! (So 5 thousand notes, the one with the ant printed on it!) Without this amount I would never have managed to realize the first club. The rent was secured for eight months and we could continue to work in peace!

Then he said, "Now we go down to the storage boss Mr. So&So and see what furniture he might give away".

With one strike the problem of the club seating was solved!

During this time Hürlimann made a hearty, typical guilds' remark about what might be the problem with getting Bazillus off the ground:

"…do you know, Mr. Kennel, why the whole Bazillus idea is proving so difficult?"
Me: "Uh, no."
He: "If everyone grows corn and someone comes along who wants to grow rye, then there's meis*…"
(* Freely translated from Zurich German Meis = noise, trouble, problems, stink.)

But finally we had our first Bazillus Club at Albisriederplatz until the end of 1979. It had no bar, but good music!! And with it the idea of Bazillus became known in the music and club scene.

Then we started planning the Bazillus music restaurant and there was no doubt that that we would order the beer from Hürlimann. I sent him this drawing, hoping that he would join us.

While we were setting up the Bazillus Hotel Hirschen, Mr.Hürlimann came by in the early afternoon because we were going to have a patrons' meeting. Hürlimann had already had one too many by then. He was accompanied by his chief financial officer. Also present was the cultural attaché of Migros, Arina Kowner. It was midsummer and the alcohol quickly made itself felt. I took them both on a tour of the house. In the basement, Mr. Hürlimann showed us a shaft door. He explained that from the late Middle Ages on, goods were delivered underground from the ships on the river Limmat and that this tunnel system had led all the way up to Marktgasse (guild members know such things!). Then it went upstairs to the rooms. Room 2 (the Chianti room) had a hip bathtub on a pedestal right in the middle of the room. Hürlimann was about to explain something to Arina Kowner and pointed up to the ceiling light, overlooked the pedestal, fell backwards into the sitz bath and quite vehemently hit his big brewery director head. "Did you hurt yourself, Mr. Hürlimann?" He just said he had a skull like a Hürlimann steed. Arina and I almost didn't manage to haul the heavy man out of the tub.

This story was told over and over again later. 

Martin Hürlimann donates CHF 40,000. for the last time for hotel beds and linen, among other things.

Mrs. Kowner donated a large part for the hotel furnishings through Micasa.

The last time I saw him was at the Moods opening in Selnau. He was sad about the divorce from his wife. We wanted to meet again on the Allmend for a walk. But he already had problems with his legs. He was not doing so well anymore.

We were all very sad when we later learned of his death (Dec 24, 2000).