Jonas Furrer

Born Mar. 3, 1805, in Winterthur; died July 25, 1861, in Bad Ragaz. Swiss state figure; a lawyer by education.

In 1834 and 1843, Furrer was elected a member of the Great Council of the canton of Zürich, and in 1845 he was elected president of the council. He advocated prohibiting the activities of the Jesuits in Switzerland and took part in the struggle against the reactionary bloc of Catholic cantons known as the Sonderbund. Furrer was one of the authors of the Swiss Constitution of 1848. From 1848 to 1861, as head of the Department of Justice and Foreign Affairs, he was a member of the Federal Council of Switzerland. In 1848 and 1849, Furrer served as the first president of the Swiss Confederation.