Ausstellungsstrasse 21
1980–2004

After the closing of the Bazillus Workshop Albisriederplatz at the end of 1979, I got lucky and found the large basement room at Ausstellungsstrasse 21. It came about because my oldest brother Maurice knew a Bruno Huwyler, who owned a store with high-tech furniture in industrial design at Konradstrasse. Huwyler used the basement at Ausstellungsstrasse as a storage room.

I was a subtenant of Arthur Attinger, who had a fruit and vegetable store on the first floor. There was no wash basin and the toilet was connected to a steep wooden staircase at the top of Attinger's first floor. Fortunately, there was no building permit at that time. This cellar continued to be a rehearsal room and a place where workshops were also held. The "K.T.Geier Workshop" also continued seamlessly here. 

Spontaneous workshop with the US sax player Bill Saxton

Workshop II was officially a rehearsal space for musicians and bands who just wanted to rehearse once a week. Otherwise, from 1990 on, all concerts were held there under the label "B-Flat", which had emerged from the first illegal live club at Weinbergstrasse 11. 

See also Stories > The First B-Flat I

With the financial help of Erika Hug, we were able to make various changes and adjustments over the years. For later investments there was still about Fr. 30'000.- available from this patronage account. 

Financial contributions to better equip the second workshop also came from the City of Zurich and MIGROS .

In August 1984, a warm industrial floor was poured, the space was painted, electrical fixtures and fire extinguishers were installed as well as the lighting for the for the emergency exit. Together with Francois Manhart I then built a special bar made of plaster panels and a hidden pulley with counterweight, which could be folded out, built in such a way that during official inspections no one noticed that a temporary bar operation was possible here.

I also rented the room to the "Jazz Circle Zürich".
A club of vinyl lovers, the members owned shellac record collections far back to the 40s and 30s.
The Circle mainly gave lectures and organized concerts.

Between 1980-82 ("Bazillus Musikrestaurant, Stampfenbachstrasse) and 1984-87 ("Bazillus Hotel Hirschen") there were no Bazillus concerts, because I was involved with the big Bazillus clubs during that time. This changed quickly when the "Hirschenbazillus" was closed in 1987. All the equipment from the Bazillus-Hirschen went into the basement at Ausstellungsstrasse 21.

Then we organized a patrons' evening as a thank you to all the people and institutions for their financial support to save the "Hirschbazillus" from bankruptcy.

My relationship with the landlord Arthur Attinger, who was a tenant with the real estate administration of the City of Zurich, had sublet the room to me. But he was not allowed to do so. This produced a situation of ups and downs, of bad feelings over the years. Whenever something didn't suit him, he let it slip that he could always get another tenant. He had certainly noticed that I did not want to get out of the basement. This created an impossible situation, a quagmire in favor of Attinger. The rent went up and up until it was twice as much as initially. The consequence was that I had to charge my subtenants more rent for the rehearsal room. 

In 1994 Attinger caught us at an illegal B-flat session. He threatened to change the locks immediately and that the termination would follow soon. I agreed with him to stop the illegal concerts and rent out the room here and there as a party room and special evenings. There even was a short time of Sunday morning jazz brunches, organized by Attinger himself, but he stopped them pretty soon, because "it was not worth while"…

So he took a trip through Europe with a caravan for several months. When he came back, he made a proposal to join me. He also wanted 'something nice for his remaining life'. Later, the chief of the economic police surprisingly came to the workshop in person and made me a nice compliment. He said he had never seen such a well arranged illegal club in the city. The WiPo could well consider giving me a permit for one concert per month if we could solve the emergency exit thing. Arthur knew this officer of the economic police personally and was on a first-name basis with him. That made me wonder……

So I went directly to the real estate administration of the City of Zurich (LVZ). I wanted to clarify directly what it would cost to install a second emergency exit. Slowly, LVZ came up with the idea of expanding the room properly, with all the trimmings. They felt that this rental situation was anything but fair.

The LVZ then asked Attinger and me in a letter to enter into a new contract, where I would be a direct subtenant of the city. Attinger went ballistic and sent me the notice of termination on June 12, 2001. 

This was a starting point again: LVZ as the new direct landlord, took over the whole thing and used the best lawyers in town to enforce that Attinger as a tenant of the City had to give in after 21 years of illegal subletting. Then we all went before the justice of the peace. Attinger lost the dispute. Because of our new emergency exit, he even had to give up a few square meters of his space. After that, we never said hello to each other again. He then soon sold his business. The company name remained. 

Next Step: the "Bazillus" will be built in spring 2004 by the LVZ and the Office for Buildings for us Bazillus, and will open on December 3rd 2004 with the new name "Bazillus ad hoc live club".

The reconstruction begins…

See also Stories > Bazillus ad hoc Live Club