Edmund Jüssen

Edmund Jüssen (1830 – February 17, 1891) was a German-American politician and diplomat who held office in the states of Wisconsin and Illinois. He spent the final years of his career as the United States Consul General in Vienna.

Biography Early life Jüssen was born in Jülich, in the Kingdom of Prussia to Jacob Jüssen (1802–1880), a wealthy cloth merchant who served as Burgermeister of Jülich. Swept up in the 1848 Revolutions, Jüssen's opportunities for education in Germany were limited due to his political affiliations, and he elected to instead travel to the United States with his uncle, Georg. Jüssen's brother-in-law Carl Schurz also immigrated to America and in 1877 became United States Secretary of the Interior.

Career Edmund Jüssen came to the Wisconsin Territory from Germany in 1847 and first found employment with the Hungarian nobleman Agoston Haraszthy, who helped the young man learn English through the use of his extensive library. Jüssen opened a store in Columbus soon thereafter. He then moved to Saint Louis, Missouri but returned to Columbus with his wife who succumbed to cholera shortly thereafter. He studied law and was admitted to the Wisconsin bar. In 1853, Jüssen's father joined him in Wisconsin and eventually served as postmaster of Columbus.

In an effort to establish himself in a larger community, Jüssen moved to Madison, where he was elected to the Wisconsin State Assembly in 1861 as a Republican. He was buried at Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago.