Photo courtesy: hermannsjazz.ca
Born in Germany, Nieweler immigrated to Canada when he was 22 years old and worked as a carpenter all over the country. The origin of Hermann’s Jazz Club stemmed from when Nieweler part owned the Bastion Inn in Victroia and his friend Barry Stubbs persuaded him to book Friday Harbor’s Island City Jazz Band for a weekend at the hotel. Two hundred people attended the show. From there, he and Stubbs formed a marketing duo and renamed the hotel the Dixieland Inn.
In 1986, the club was moved to View Street and renamed Hermann’s Jazz Club. Through its three decades on View Street, the club has survived at least two fires that occurred in the nightclub on the floor above the jazz club.
In the summer of 2010, Nieweler received a kidney transplant after three and a half years of dialysis. Three years later, at the age of 78, he participated in the 2013 Easter Seals Drop Zone For The Kids rappelling down the side of Victoria’s 13-storey CIBC building.
Hermann Nieweler will be remembered for his love of Dixieland music, his support of local jazz musicians and school jazz programs and for owning one of the longest running jazz clubs in the country.
A remembrance of Hermann Nieweler will be held at Hermann’s Jazz Club Sunday June 14, 2015 with performances by frequent Hermann’s performers CanUS Jazz Band and the Dixieland Express. Details can be found at this facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/498948553586869/
Obituary article on Hermann Nieweler at timescolonist.com: http://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/obituary-jazz-club-was-a-labour-of-love-for-hermann-nieweler-1.1967026
A Victoria News article profiling Hermann Nieweler for the jazz club’s 30th anniversary in 2011: http://www.vicnews.com/news/133841538.html
