Charles Pictet de Rochemont

Charles Pictet de Rochemont ( born September 21, 1755 in Geneva, † December 28, 1824 in Lancy ) was a Swiss diplomat, politician and military officer.

Life

Charles Pictet Geneva came from a patrician family. He was the son of Charles Pictet (1713-1792), a colonel in the Dutch service, and Marie, nee Dunant. After a brief study in Geneva in 1775, he began a military career in France, where he for 12 years in the army offered service. With his marriage to Sara Adélaïde de Rochemont 1786, he changed his family name to " Pictet de Rochemont ." After his return to Geneva, he was in 1788 a member of the " Conseil des Deux Cents " ( Parliament of the Republic of Geneva ) and high-ranking officer of the Geneva troops.

While the Geneva revolution, he was sentenced in 1794 to one year of house arrest. In 1796 he founded with his brother, the scientist Marc- Auguste Pictet, and Frédéric -Guillaume Maurice magazine « Bibliothèque britannique " ( since 1816 « Bibliothèque universal "), which was aimed at dissemination of all made ​​in England important discoveries and come out works. In 1798 he bought an estate in Lancy, which he edited himself and where he especially bred Merino sheep.

Diplomatic activity

Geneva was until 1798 an independent, allied with Switzerland Republic ( facing site). 1798 Geneva was occupied and annexed by France. After the liberation of Geneva on December 31, 1813 a strategic goal of the Geneva government was the inclusion of Geneva in Switzerland as a canton, in order to avoid future influence attempts of the great powers. One problem presented the dismemberment of the Geneva territory of several enclaves surrounded by savoyardischem and French territory that existed and had no land connection with Switzerland.

Pictet de Rochemont was should with François d' Ivernois Geneva delegate to conferences of the Great Powers who recognize the recovered independence of Geneva and accept his accession as Canton of Switzerland. The most sensitive point of his order was the Geneva territory to enlarge so that a coherent field arose which had a land connection with the rest of Switzerland. Back in January 1814 spread Pictet de Rochemont Geneva concern the great powers in Basel. Both the first peace negotiations in Paris in May 1814 and the Congress of Vienna ( September 1814-May 1815 ) could not be reached, the area enlargement, as the French delegate Talleyrand the Pays de Gex, did not want to give up. In contrast, the independence of Geneva and its association with Switzerland was accepted.

At the subsequent negotiations for the Second Peace of Paris from August 1815 Pictet de Rochemont participated as a representative of the Swiss Diet. He reached that Geneva six municipalities of the French Pays de Gex got ( Collex -Bossy, Genthod, Le Grand- Saconnex, Meyrin, Pregny, and Vernier Versoix, a total of 49.3 km ² and 3343 inhabitants. ). His second success was the recognition of everlasting Swiss neutrality by the great powers ( France, Great Britain, Russia, Prussia and Austria ) on 20 November 1815.

In order to negotiate the territorial enlargement south of the Rhône, Pictet de Rochemont was sent in 1816 by the Canton of Geneva and from Switzerland to Turin and again had success. With the Turin contract (16 March 1816) Victor Emmanuel I joined, King of Sardinia - Piedmont, 24 municipalities in Geneva from, which are known as " communes réunies » ( Aire- la -Ville, Anières, Avusy, Bernex, Carouge, Chêne -Bourg, Choulex, Collonge- Bellerive, Compesières, Confignon, Corsier, Hermance, Laconnex, Lancy, Meinier, Onex, Perly, plan-les- Ouates, Cara, Puplinge, Soral, Thônex, Troinex and Veyrier, total 108.8 km ² and 12,700 inhabitants). In addition, a duty-free trade zone around the Canton of Geneva was built as a hinterland of Geneva's economy, and the Chablais Savoyard been militarily neutralized.

For his services Pictet de Rochemont was appointed honorary member of the Geneva government and received the recognition of the Swiss Diet. After 1816 he devoted himself mainly to his estate, but was still a member of the " Conseil représentatif » ( cantonal parliament ). He died in 1824.