Ochs, Peter

Ochs, Peter

 

Born Aug. 20, 1752, in Nantes, France; died June 19, 1821, in Basel. Swiss politician.

Under the influence of the Great French Revolution, Ochs advocated a bourgeois democratic transformation in Switzerland and the formation of a unified state. He participated in the negotiations for the Basel peace treaties of 1795. Representing Basel in Paris in 1797–98, he drew up the text of a constitution for the Helvetian Republic. Ochs served as first president of the Senate and member of the Directory of the Helvetian Republic in 1798–99. As a result of Swiss discontent with French policy, which Ochs supported, he was forced to resign. After his departure from national politics, he served as a member of the Basel cantonal council from 1803 to 1814.

Ochs was the author of a work on the history of Basel.