Josef Franz von Sales Johann Baptist Karl Nikolaus von Flüe Amrhyn (11 February 1800 in

Lucerne Lucerne ( ) or Luzern ()Other languages: ; ; ; . is a city in central Switzerland, in the Languages of Switzerland, German-speaking portion of the country. Lucerne is the capital of the canton of Lucerne and part of the Lucerne (district), di ...

, Switzerland – 7 April 1849), was a Swiss politician who served as the second

Chancellor of Switzerland The federal chancellor is the head of the Federal Chancellery of Switzerland, the oldest Swiss federal institution, established at the initiative of Napoleon in 1803. The officeholder acts as the general staff of the seven-member Federal Counci ...

from 1831 to 1847.

Biography

Son of former Diet President , he studied at the Pestalozzi school of the château Yverdon (1810-1812) and then at the gymnasium and lyceum of

before pursuing legal study at

Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...

Freiburg im Breisgau Freiburg im Breisgau or simply Freiburg is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fourth-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of abou ...

, and

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

(1820-1823). In 1822, he joined the ''Old Freiburger'' fraternity. He began his career as a private secretary to his father before being named deputy magistrate in Lucerne in 1824, where he would play a controversial role in the trial of the murder of Franz Xaver Keller. He then served as Secretary of State of the

Confederation A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a political union of sovereign states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...

(1825-1830), then Chancellor of the Confederation on the proposal of his predecessor Jean-Marc Mousson from 1831 to 1847. Catholic and moderately liberal, he was opposed to the objectives of the Sonderbund (an alliance of Roman Catholic cantons) and resigned in 1847 for his refusal to declare war against the coalition and therefore against the canton of his hometown,

. On 7 April 1849, his body was discovered in the River Reuss. The circumstances surrounding his death have never been elucidated.

Biography

Further reading