His parents were wealthy and owned a large farm, a mill and a fruit press business.

[5] In 1842, he completed an apprenticeship in the iron foundry of Caspar Aeppli in Rapperswil and with Sulzer in Winterthur.

[6] After his apprenticeship he gained experience abroad while working in Graz, Trieste, Venice and Milan.

[7] When Bühler returned to Switzerland, he already had plans to start his own iron foundry and was looking for opportunities to build.

At the time of his death the Bühler company employed over 600 people and had subsidiaries in several foreign countries.