Johann Rudolf Wettstein was born on 27 October 1594 as the youngest of five sons,[1] and attended the "Schule auf Burg," the present-day secondary school located at the Münsterplatz in Basel.

[4] With time he owed quite a sum to his wife's family[5] and apparently for that reason he moved to Italy in 1616, where he served in the Venetian military.

[7][8] In 1635 he became senior guild master in the city of Basel, and by June 1645 he was elected its Mayor,[3] which he stayed for twenty-one years.

[10] Wettstein participated in the negotiations for the Peace of Westphalia in 1646/47 interested to gain juridical independence for the merchants of Basel from the Holy Roman Empire.

[15] Following the Frankfurter trade fair in October 1650, the German Court in Speyer, ordered the seizure of certain goods from the merchants in Basel[16] and after some negotiations in Viennas Hofburg, the two achieved their liberation.

[17] In exchange Wettstein and Zwyer agreed to an Austrian demand, that Swiss soldiers wouldn't participate in battles which would expand the French territories.

Associated with Switzerland's independence, Wettstein's name first became prominent around 1750, and reached its zenith during World War II, when the country's sovereignty was challenged once more.