Jean-Marc Mousson

Jean-Marc Samuel Isaac Mousson (born February 17, 1776 in Morges ; † June 21, 1861 in Zurich ; resident in Morges) was a Swiss politician and civil servant . From 1803 to 1830 he was the first Federal Chancellor of Switzerland.

Lithography by Carl Friedrich Irminger (~ 1850)

biography

The descendant of Huguenot refugees from Le Mas-d'Azil in the French county of Foix and the son of a Reformed pastor, studied law at the Academy in Lausanne . He continued his studies at the University of Tübingen and obtained his doctorate in 1796. After the French invasion and the associated end of the Bernese rule, he took part in the provisional assembly of the " Lemanic Republic " in January 1798 as a member of the Bursins' republic and was its secretary.

The Directory , the Government of the Helvetic Republic , appointed Mousson General Secretary in June 1798. Louis d'Affry , the first Landammann in Switzerland , appointed him his private secretary in the spring of 1803. In July of the same year the election of the Federal Chancellor took place through the parliamentary assembly . Mousson was largely responsible for setting up the Federal Chancellery , the oldest permanent federal authority in Switzerland. At the beginning this had to move annually with the archive to the respective suburb of the daily statute, from 1815 only every two years.

In view of the constant change from suburb and mayor or chairman of the parliament, Mousson ensured continuity and was one of the most important contacts for foreign envoys. In 1815 he was honored with the Hungarian Order of St. Stephen and in 1817 with the Prussian Order of the Red Eagle . The city of Zurich granted him honorary citizenship in 1816, as did the city of Bern in 1821. Mousson held the office of chancellor until 1830. In 1833/34 he worked again as a clerk in the arbitration tribunal that legally regulated the separation of the Basel cantons .

literature

• Georg von Wyß :  Mousson, Joh. Marcus Samuel Isaak . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 22, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1885, pp. 412-415.

Web links

• Louis Polla / PTO: Jean-Marc Mousson. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Biography on the website of the Federal Chancellery