Johann Ulrich Schiess

Johann Ulrich Schiess (born February 21, 1813 in Wald ( Appenzell Ausserrhoden ); † July 6, 1883 in Bern ) was a Swiss civil servant and politician . He was Federal Chancellor from 1848 to 1881 . then a liberal national councilor until his death .

biography

The son of a reformed pastor received his education in Basel . He then studied law at the Universities of Basel , Jena , Berlin and Göttingen . In 1831 he became a member of the Jena fraternity. Schiess received his doctorate in 1835 and began his professional career in the administration of the canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden. He initially worked as an archivist , from 1836 as an interrogator and from 1839 as a council clerk.

Chancellor Josef Franz Karl Amrhyn resigned on November 4, 1847, because he refused to countersign the declaration of war in the daily statute to the Sonderbund . Although Schiess did not run for office at all, he was elected as his successor; he found out about his election from the newspaper. Since the Federal Chancellery was without a leader, he took up the post on an interim basis just a few days later. The Federal Assembly officially confirmed it a year later .

Schiess was regarded as an extremely hard-working, but also strict administrative specialist. The University of Jena honored him with an honorary doctorate for his internationally recognized contributions to the development of the federal administration . The Federal Council entrusted him several times with diplomatic missions in neighboring countries. In 1881 he resigned and was elected to the National Council in the parliamentary elections in the same year , for which he had previously kept minutes for 33 years. He died of a stroke on the way to a session in 1883.

The Baden revolutionary Friedrich Hecker , who emigrated to the USA after 1848, describes Schiess as “a prototype of a worthy, active, honest and spirited official of a republic ... A lively, short, somewhat corpulent man with friendly, witty eyes, honesty in everyone Trains."

literature

Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume I: Politicians. Sub-Volume 5: R – S. Winter, Heidelberg 2002, ISBN 3-8253-1256-9 , pp. 236-237.

Web links

Thomas Fuchs: Johann Ulrich Schiess. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . July 9, 2010 .
Biography on the website of the Federal Chancellery
Johann Ulrich Schiess in: Your present feeling Small writings from the Appenzell Ausserrhoden Cantonal Library

Individual evidence

^ Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume I: Politicians. Sub-Volume 5: R – S. Winter, Heidelberg 2002, ISBN 3-8253-1256-9 , p. 236.

personal data
SURNAME	Schiess, Johann Ulrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Swiss Federal Chancellor and National Councilor
DATE OF BIRTH	February 21, 1813
PLACE OF BIRTH	Forest AR
DATE OF DEATH	July 6, 1883
Place of death	Bern

[1] Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume I: Politicians. Sub-Volume 5: R – S. Winter, Heidelberg 2002, ISBN 3-8253-1256-9 , p. 236.