Louis Wyrsch

Franz Alois Wyrsch (; 2 March 1793 – 21 April 1858), colloquially Louis Wyrsch, often nicked Borneo Louis, was a Swiss politician and military commander. In 1816, Wyrsch entered the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army as a mercenary after serving in the Royal Netherlands Army in the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

In 1832, he returned to Switzerland, and took high-ranking offices in the Canton of Nidwalden, where he was originally from. In 1849, he was a member of the Constitutional Council of Switzerland, and was among those who constructed the Swiss Federal Constitution.

Early life and education Franz Alois Wyrsch was born on 2 March 1793 in Bellinzona, as the son of Franz Alois Wyrsch Sr., bailiff of the Riviera, commissioner in Bellinzona and captain in the service of Spain, and Marie Konstantia Wyrsch (née von Flüe). The Wyrsch family was originally from Buochs in Nidwalden on Lake Lucerne. He was a grandson of Benedikt Niklaus von Flüe and the nephew of Michael von Flüe.

He was educated at the Royal Seminary of San Pablo in Valencia and his father's regiment in Spain. After his father's death in 1807, he returned to Nidwalden and finished his education at the Rheinau conventual school in 1812. Wyrsch then went to do an apprenticeship in Belfort.

Career Wyrsch joined the Royal Netherlands Army as a soldier in 1814 and took part in the Battle of Waterloo.

In 1832 he returned to Nidwalden where he was a bailiff between 1834 and 1840 and a major of Nidwalden's army between 1834 and 1847.

Wyrsch was first elected Nidwalden's head of state (landammann) on 25 April 1841. He was reelected in 1845, 1848, 1849, 1851, 1853, 1855 and 1857. He was commander of the Nidwalden battalion during the Sonderbund war in 1847,

In Nidwalden, he bought the Au mill in Ennetbürgen in 1839 and earned his living as a miller.

Swiss Constitution He was a drafting member of the Swiss Constitution.

The Swiss Constitution was created by Ulrich Ochsenbein who headed it along with the following other members: Jonas Furrer, Jakob Robert Steiger, Franz Jauch, Melchior Diethelm, Alois Michel, Caspar Jenny-Becker, Franz Müller, Jean-François Marcellin Bussard, Josef Munzinger, Johann Georg Fürstenberger, later Felix Sarasin, Karl Spitteler, Johann Georg Böschenstein, Johann Konrad Oertli, Wilhelm Matthias Näff, Raget Abys, Friedrich Frey-Herosé, Johann Konrad Kern, Giacomo Luvini-Perseghini, Henri Druey, Maurice Barman, later Franz Kaspar Zen Ruffinen and Louis Rilliet.

He was made knight 4th class of the Military Order of William of the Netherlands on 21 October 1832.

Personal life In 1824, Wyrsch married Johanna van den Berg (who went by Silla in Malay), a woman of Java, Malaysia.

Alois Wyrsch (15 June 1825 – 6 March 1888), who served on the National Council (Switzerland), as the first person of color.

Two years later, in 1834 Wyrsch married Theresia Stockmann, the daughter of Felix Josef Stockmann.

Wyrsch died on 21 April 1858 in Ennetbürgen aged 65.