Biography
Son of former Diet President Joseph Karl Amrhyn, he studied at the Pestalozzi school of the château Yverdon (1810-1812), then at the gymnasium and lyceum of Lucerne before pursuing legal study at Göttingen, Freiburg-im-Brisgau, and Paris (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 (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, Lucern. On 7 April 1849, his body was discovered in the River Reuss. The circumstances surrounding his death have never been elucidated.References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Amrhyn, Josef Franz Karl 1800 births Federal Chancellors of Switzerland 1849 deaths People from Lucerne