List of members of the Swiss Federal Council (original) (raw)

The table below shows the members of the Swiss Federal Council or Federal Councilors (in German: Bundesr�te, in French: conseillers f�d�raux, in Italian: consiglieri federali) for any given year since instauration of the federal council (in German: Bundesrat, in French: conseil f�d�ral, in Italian: consiglio federale) from 1848 to present. If your only interested in a chronological list of the members, you can view the page without the html-tags of the source.

Table

Decade First day in office1 Federal councilors
1848 16 November 1848 Ulrich Ochsenbein2 Jonas Furrer Martin J. Munzinger Daniel Henri Druey Friedrich Frey-Heros� Wilhelm Matthias Naeff Stefano Franscini
1850s
31 December 1854 Jakob St�mpfli
11 July 1855 3 Constant Fornerod
14 July 1855 Melchior Josef Martin Kn�sel
30 July 1857 Giovanni Battista Pioda
1860s
30 July 1861 Jakob Dubs
31 December 1863 Karl Schenk
12 July 1864 Jean-Jacques Challet-Venel 2
31 December 1866 Emil Welti
31 October 1867 Victor Ruffy
1870s
1 February 1870 Paul C�r�sole
28 May 1872 Johann Jakob Scherer
31 December 1872 Eug�ne Borel
31 December 1875 3 4 Joachim Heer Numa Droz Fridolin Anderwert Bernhard Hammer
31 December 1878 4 Simeon Bavier
1880s
3 March 1881 3 Antoine Louis John Ruchonnet
10 April 1883 Adolf Deucher
13 December 1888 Wilhelm Friedrich Hertenstein
1890s
31 December 1890 Emil Frey
31 December 1891 Joseph Zemp
31 December 1892 Adrien Lachenal
14 December 1893 Eug�ne Ruffy
16 August 1895 Eduard M�ller Walter Hauser
31 March 1897 Ernst Brenner
14 December 1899 Marc-Emile Ruchet
1900s 31 December 1899 Robert Comtesse
11 December 1902 Ludwig Forrer
17 June 1908 Josef Anton Schobinger
1910s
4 April 1911 Arthur Hoffmann
14 December 1911 Giuseppe Motta
12 March 1912 Louis Perrier
17 July 1912 Edmund Schulthess Camille Decoppet
12 June 1913 Felix-Louis Calonder
26 June 1917 Gustave Ador
31 December 1917 Robert Haab
11 December 1919 Karl Scheurer
31 December 1919 Ernest Chuard Jean-Marie Musy
1920s
12 February 1920 Heinrich H�berlin
31 December 1928 Marcel Pilet-Golaz
12 December 1929 Rudolf Minger Albert Meyer
1930s
30 April 1934 Johannes Baumann Philipp Etter
15 April 1935 Hermann Obrecht
31 December 1938 Ernst Wetter
1940s
22 February 1940 Enrico Celio
31 July 1940
10 December 1940 Eduard von Steiger Walter Stampfli
31 December 1940 Karl Kobelt
31 December 1943 Ernst Nobs
31 December 1944 Max Petitpierre
31 December 1947 Rodolphe Rubattel
1950s
15 October 1950 Josef Escher
13 December 1951 Markus Feldmann
31 December 1951 Max Weber
9 December 1954 Thomas Holenstein
31 December 1954 Hans Streuli Paul Chaudet Giuseppe Lepori
11 December 1958 Friedrich Traugott Wahlen
1960s 31 December 1959 5 Willy Sp�hler Hans-Peter Tschudi Ludwig von Moos Jean Bourgknecht
30 June 1961 Hans Schaffner
30 September 1962 Roger Bonvin
31 December 1965 Rudolf Gn�gi
31 December 1966 Nello Celio
1970s 31 December 1969 Ernst Brugger
31 January 1970 Pierre Graber
31 December 1971 Kurt Furgler
1 December 1973 Willy Ritschard
31 December 1973 Georges-Andr� Chevallaz Hans H�rlimann
31 January 1978 Pierre Aubert Fritz Honegger
1980s 31 December 1979 Leon Schlumpf
31 December 1982 Rudolf Friedrich Alphons Egli
7 December 1983 Otto Stich
31 December 1983 Jean-Pascal Delamuraz
20 October 1984 Elisabeth Kopp
31 December 1986 Arnold Koller Flavio Cotti
31 December 1987 Adolf Ogi Ren� Felber
12 January 1989 Kaspar Villiger
1990s 31 December 1989
31 March 1993 3 Ruth Dreifuss
31 October 1995 Moritz Leuenberger
30 March 1998 Pascal Couchepin
30 April 1999 Ruth Metzler-Arnold 2 Joseph Deiss
2000s
31 December 2000 Samuel Schmid
31 December 2002 Micheline Calmy-Rey
31 December 20036 Christoph Blocher Hans-Rudolf Merz
19 Aug

Notes:
1Members are elected by federal parliament for a four year term and traditionally re-elected. If the predecessor died in office, date of election, otherwise - if available - first day in office.
2Not reelected (Jean-Jacques Challet-Venel, Ulrich Ochsenbein, Ruth Metzler-Arnold)
3The office was previously declined by the first person elected: 11.7.1855 Johann Stehlin (1803-1879) BS; 18.12.1875 Charles Estoppey (1820-1888) VD; 10.12.1875 Antoine Louis John Ruchonnet (1834-1893) VD, accepted later; 22.2.1881 Karl Hoffmann (1820-1895) SG; 03.03.1993 Francis Matthey (1942-2002) NE.
4Exceptionally low representation of the French and Italian speaking cantons, compared to the German speaking ones (1:6). In recent years, those are overrepresented 3:4 (proportional to their population).
5Since 1959: Magic formula (Zauberformel) of party composition (proportional to parties in federal parliament): FDP/PRD 2, CVP/PDC 2, SPS/PSS 2, SVP/UDC 1.
6Change to magic formula of party composition (again proportional to parties in federal parliament): FDP/PRD 2, SPS/PSS 2, SVP/UDC 2, CVP/PDC 1.

Statistics/trivia

Political party of the councilors

Parties

Members1

Years in office 1

FDP/PRD (Freisinnige, parti radical)

67

LPS/PLS

1

CVP/PDC (formerly KVP)

19

SVP/UDC

9

SPS/PSS

12

Years in office

31 Karl Schenk in 1895 29 Adolf Deucher in 1912 28 Giuseppe Motta in 1940 27 Wilhelm Matthias Naeff in 1875 25 Emil Welti in 1891 Eug�ne Ruffy in 1919 Giovanni Battista Pioda in 1882 Philipp Etter in 1959 24 Eduard M�ller in 1919 22 Edmund Schulthess in 1935 Robert Comtesse in 1922 20 Melchior Josef Martin Kn�sel in 1875

1 Louis Perrier in 1913 Rudolf Friedrich in 1984 2 Gustave Ador in 1919 Jean Bourgknecht in 1962 Max Weber in 1954 Victor Ruffy in 1869 3 Eug�ne Borel in 1875 Joachim Heer in 1878 Josef Anton Schobinger in 1911 4 Alphons Egli in 1986 Elisabeth Kopp in 1989 Josef Escher in 1954 Ruth Metzler-Arnold in 2003 5 Ernst Wetter in 1943 Fridolin Anderwert in 1880 Fritz Honegger in 1982 Giuseppe Lepori in 1959 Hermann Obrecht in 1940 Paul C�r�sole in 1875 Ren� Felber in 1993 Thomas Holenstein in 1959

(w/o councilors currently in office)

Age when elected

72 Gustave Ador in 1917 65 Josef Escher in 1950 63 Louis Perrier in 1912 Christoph Blocher in 2003 62 Ernest Chuard in 1919 61 Ernst Wetter in 1938 Hans Streuli in 1953 Pierre Graber in 1969 60 Fritz Honegger in 1977 Johannes Baumann in 1934

31 Numa Droz in 1875 34 Jakob St�mpfli in 1854 35 Ruth Metzler-Arnold in 1999 36 Constant Fornerod in 1855 Eug�ne Borel in 1872 37 Ulrich Ochsenbein in 1848 38 Paul C�r�sole in 1870 39 Eug�ne Ruffy in 1893 Jakob Dubs in 1861 Marcel Pilet-Golaz in 1928

Age when resigning/dying in office

81 Adolf Deucher in 1912 75 Robert Comtesse in 1922 74 Giovanni Battista Pioda in 1882 Gustave Ador in 1919 Joseph Zemp in 1908 73 Wilhelm Matthias Naeff in 1875 72 Karl Schenk in 1895 Ludwig Forrer in 1917 71 Eduard M�ller in 1919 Ernest Chuard in 1928 Simeon Bavier in 1896 70 Arthur Hoffmann in 1927 Eduard von Steiger in 1951 Pierre Graber in 1978 69 Giuseppe Motta in 1940 Josef Escher in 1954 68 Albert Meyer in 1938 Bernhard Hammer in 1890 Georges-Andr� Chevallaz in 1983 Otto Stich in 1995 Philipp Etter in 1959 Willy Sp�hler in 1970 67 Edmund Schulthess in 1935 Hans Streuli in 1959 66 Arnold Koller in 1999 Emil Welti in 1891 Ernst Wetter in 1943 Friedrich Traugott Wahlen in 1965 Heinrich H�berlin in 1934 Johannes Baumann in 1940 Roger Bonvin in 1973

40 Eug�ne Borel in 1875 43 Jakob St�mpfli in 1863 Paul C�r�sole in 1875 Ulrich Ochsenbein in 1854 46 Victor Ruffy in 1869 48 Constant Fornerod in 1867 Numa Droz in 1892 50 Adrien Lachenal in 1899 Jakob Dubs in 1872

Years alive after resigning from office

36 Ulrich Ochsenbein, died in 1890 33 Max Petitpierre in 1994 32 Constant Fornerod in 1899 Felix-Louis Calonder in 1952 30 Enrico Celio in 1980 Paul C�r�sole in 1905 29 Hans-Peter Tschudi in 2002 25 Emil Frey in 1922 Pierre Graber in 2003 22 Nello Celio in 1995

Age

95 Max Petitpierre in 1994 (born 1899) 94 Pierre Graber in 2003 90 Enrico Celio in 1980 88 Felix-Louis Calonder in 1952 Hans-Peter Tschudi in 2002 Willy Sp�hler in 1990 87 Georges-Andr� Chevallaz in 2002 86 Friedrich Traugott Wahlen in 1985 Philipp Etter in 1977

See also: Politics of Switzerland - Presidents of the Swiss Confederation - Executive branch - Incumbents