 After studying philosophy and history in Bern and Geneva, he became a teacher at a school in St. Gallen in 1857.Between 1859 and 1877, as well as between 1885 and 1912, he was state archivist in St. Gallen.Between 1872 and 1879, he had been an editor in Leipzig and Hirschberg (Silesia), from 1879 to 1885 at the NZZ.