Melchior Josef Martin Knüsel (16 November 1813 – 14 January 1889) was a Swiss jurist and politician from the Liberal Radical Party (FDP) and member of the Federal Council of Switzerland over which he presided in 1861 and 1866.

[2] In 1841 the conservative leaning Grand Council of Lucerne elected him to become the provincial prosecutor despite the fact that he had become a member of the Liberal party.

[4] When Steiger resigned from the Executive Council in 1852 after he failed in his aim to support the construction of railways by the state, Knüsel was then considered his successor.

[7] Following Melchior Josef Martin Knüsel was again made a candidate and elected to the Swiss Federal Council on 14 July 1855.

[1] When he was in charge of the Department of Trade and Customs in 1860, he was in favor of a soon to be constructed tunnel through the Alps, to connect northern Europe with Italy.

[9] In 1873 the ideological gap between the reformists and the catholics emerged as the reason of Knüsel's eventual loss in the Federal Council.

harshly criticised the Church Laws in Geneva and Solothurn, the Federal Council recalled the Swiss ambassador to the Holy See.

[12] When in 1875 the confirmative elections were to be held, he was made a candidate in a conservative district, where he didn't have a chance and lost, following which he resigned.

[3] On the 17 July he saved the life of a child that fell into Lake Lucerne, for which he was officially recognized by the President of the Executive Council Alois Singer.