Events from 1848 in Switzerland.

• Federal Council (starting from November 16):
  • Ulrich Ochsenbein
  • Jonas Furrer (President)
  • Josef Munzinger
  • Henri Druey
  • Friedrich Frey-Herosé
  • Wilhelm Matthias Naeff
  • Stefano Franscini

• February – Federal troops leave Zug
• February – Pro-republic uprising in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Le Locle, and Val-de-Travers^[1]
• 1 March – Pro-republic forces overthrow the Council of State of the Canton of Neuchatel, declare the Canton a republic
• April – Federal troops leave Wallis
• 27 June – Draft constitution accepted by the Swiss Diet^[1]
• July – A Swiss constitutional referendum is held in July and August in the Cantons^[2]
• 12 September – New constitution declared accepted with 15 1/2 Cantons accepting, 6 1/2 voting against^[2][1]
• 6 November – Nationalrat and Ständerat meet in Bern for the first time^[1]
• 16 November – Seven members of Federal Council appointed.^[1] New constitution comes into force.^[2]
• The position of President of the Swiss Confederation is created, with the inaugural president being Jonas Furrer

• January 4 – Heinrich Suter, historian (died 1922)
• April 21/23 – Carl Rüedi, pulmonologist (died 1901)
• June 30 – Paul Zweifel, gynecologist and physiologist (died 1927)
• September 1 – Auguste Forel, myrmecologist, neuroanatomist and psychiatrist (died 1931)
• October 24 – William Foster Apthorp, musician (died 1913)
• November 12 – Eduard Müller, politician (died 1919)^[3]
• November 28 – Paul Charles Dubois, neuropathologist (died 1918)
• Pierre-Georges Jeanniot, painter, designer, watercolorist, and engraver (died 1934)
• Adolfo Kind, chemical engineer and one of the fathers of Italian skiing (died 1907)
• Andrew Mattei, Swiss-Italian winemaker (died 1931)
• Auguste Baud-Bovy, painter (died 1949)

• June 27 – Heinrich Zschokke, author and reformer (born 1771)

• About the civil war