Johann Ulrich Ochsenbein, colloquially Ulrich Ochsenbein (24 November 1811 – 3 November 1890) was a Swiss jurist, military officer, politician who most notably served on the Federal Council (Switzerland) from 1848 to 1854. He previously also served on the National Council (Switzerland) briefly in 1848.
Early life and education
Ochsenbein was born Johann Ulrich Ochsenbein on 24 November 1811 in the hamlet of Schwarzenegg in the Bernese Oberland, the second of ten children, to Caspar Ochsenbein, a innkeeper and horse dealer, and Magdalena Ochsenbein (née Gasser). His family was modestly affluent and relocated to Romandy in 1818 to Marnand in Vaud.
Ochsenbein is described of having been close to his mother.
He served as a Feldwebel in the federal intervention in Basel Country in 1833 and was promoted to Unterleutntant in the artillery in 1834. Over a hundred people died in the attack and 2000 prisoners were taken by Lucerne. Following the cantons of Lucerne, Zug, Valais, Schwyz, Fribourg, Uri and Unterwalden created the so-called Sonderbund. In 1847, he led a military force from Bern against the Sonderbund which then was also defeated in the Sonderbund war. He is one of only a few federal councilors to be voted out of office. During his time as a federal councilor a fight broke out between the conservatives and a group of the radical party. Not willing to take positions, he lost the trust of both sides. During his time in office he held the Military Department (department of defence).
In France
thumb|His tombstone in Nidau
After he resigned from politics in Switzerland, he first considered an emigration to America but then became a military officer in France where he served as a Brigadier General in the German-French war. That he served as a former head of the Military Department in Switzerland in the foreign services was also noted in Switzerland.
He returned to Nidau after his military service in France, and following opposed the educational politics of the Federal Councilor Karl Schenk or the Bernese railway politics which did not make him more popular.