Dieter Schärer

Born May 20, 1944 in Basel.

Dieter Schärer had to take on administrative responsibility within his family as a young man because his father had died at an early age. In subsequent years, he could only profit from this first challenge. Also in his later professional life, in the whole Bazillus structure, the institutions and with the authorities and his customers, his reliability was always very much appreciated.

Professional career:
- Commercial apprenticeship at the chemical factory Solco Basel AG in Birsfelden. 
- First job: Spirits import company Jean Haecky Import AG in Basel
- Completed the first Swiss advertising assistant course at KV-Zurich, which led to the professional title "eidg. dipl. Werbeberater, Kommunikationsfachmann SW".

In 1965 he moved to Zurich with Jolanda Weibel (see below) and worked as an advertising consultant at Jean Wild AG (later Interweba AG) where Beat Kennel also completed his apprenticeship as a graphic designer 1964-67.

Dieter and Jolanda married in 1967.

From June 1970 Dieter worked as managing director for Jean Wild's second agency, Telewerba AG, which was renamed Publi-Creation AG in 1970. On 1971 Dieter Schärer bought Publi-Creation AG from Jean Wild and from then on, together with his wife Jolanda, worked on customer orders in the field of advertising, sales promotion, PR and later also websites. 
In the fall of 1969, Dieter completed the BSR marketing course at the SAWI in Biel and various continuing education courses in the field of public relations.

Together with Bazillus founder Beat Kennel, he became a co-initiator of the project "A Music Center for Zurich" in 1972. The two were desperately looking for a pub where a jazz club could be realized. In the following years, they checked out about 34 restaurants. In 1974, Beat Kennel found a basement pub in the property at Albisriederplatz 6 and began to convert the space with the help of volunteers. The Kennel-Schärer team launched a patronage campaign to find possible donors or companies willing to donate materials for the upcoming Bazillus Workshop I.

From 1976 Dieter was responsible for the "Association for the Promotion of the Bacillus Communication Center", which was dissolved again in 1979. Members of the board included Peter Rüedi and Bernhard Uhlmann from the then Presidential Department of the City of Zurich.

In the first big Bazillus Club at Stampfenbachstrasse 8, Dieter was co-owner of Bazillus AG. He was also responsible for the press and editing of the Bazillus music program for two years. 
From 1983 on, the two continued their search and then, through the city of Zurich, realized the jazz club "Bazillus Hotel Hirschen" at Hirschenplatz in 1984. Dieter Schärer was the manager of this project for three years (1984-87) and also president of the "Verein Musikrestaurant Stadt Zürich".

For political reasons, the "Bazillus Hotel Hirschen" had to close on March 22, 1987.
What went wrong at that time, shows this contribution of DRS aktuell from 19.01.1987.

TV discussion round from minute 13:19 to 18:33…

With city president Thomas Wagner, with party president Hans-Ulrich Zbinden of the SP ZH/municipal council ZH, and with Bazillus managing director Dieter Schärer. The interview is conducted by Edith Jud from Swiss Television.

After the closure of Bazillus Hotel Hirschen, Beat Kennel disbanded Bazillus (exhausted) and continued with a series of sessions at the B-Flat venues from 1988 to 2004. And Dieter was finally able to devote more time to his company again.

14 years later, Beat Kennel was offered in 2003 by the real estate administration to convert the space on Ausstellungsstrasse into a professionally equipped jazz club.
A supporting association had to be founded due to municipal funds and further contributions from institutions. The B-Flat on Ausstellungsstrasse was transformed into the "Bazillus ad hoc live club" in 2004. Schärer offered himself again as president of the club and was responsible for the "Förderverein BazillusKlub" and also for commercial and internal matters until 2011.

In June 2022 Dieter has come back to the board of the "Förderverein BazillusArchive" as "Actuary", which means nothing else than that he is now, as it was before in the club, again "the jack for everything"…

Jolanda Schärer-Weibel

1946–2021

Sad announcement…
Jolanda was snatched from the midst of life by a sudden cardiac arrest on 5 January 2021.

Jolanda first worked as a trained forwarding agent in the export department of the glassblower Roberto Niederer and later at the advertising agency Wiener & Deville. From 1972 onwards, as co-owner of Publi Creation AG, she was closely involved in all Bacillus telephone calls, correspondence, etc. from her workplace. Partly negative information, but also pleasant things she has carried over the total of almost 20 years!

At Bazillus Hotel Hirschen (1984-1987) she also helped in the organizational area in the hotel operation.
She was then elected to the board of the "Förderverein BazillusKlub" from 2004 to 2011. She was also administratively responsible for the members of the association.

When Beat gave me access to the emerging homepage about the Bazillus history in the summer of 2021, more and more memories were "kissed awake" in hours of perusal and many emotional moments were triggered. What Beat and Anne as well as I together with Jolanda have done "on the side" from the early 70's to create a "home" for the Bazillus, borders in retrospect on the unbelievable.

But what Beat has now additionally researched and compiled in the last few years in documents, reports and photos about this time and has brought into a clear homepage, deserves a huge praise!

The homepage confirms what an important contribution Bazillus has made to Zurich's music and cultural history over the past decades - and far beyond the cantonal and national borders.

Chapeau, Beat!

Dieter Schärer, September 19, 2021

Letter of thanks from the City of Zurich to Jolanda and Dieter Schärrer dated July 2011