Why didn't Germany take over Switzerland regardless of its declared neutrality...?

Question

It would've been an easy matter....a pushover in fact...in spite of the Alps. WWII

Answer 1

Invading a country is one thing. Holding a country is another. Hitler learned that the hard way when he went into the Soviet Union. The Nazis made it to the outskirts of Leningrad, Stalingrad, and Moscow. They were even able to drop the odd shell on the Kremlin. It looked like that it was all over for Stalin. Then winter hit and the Russians turned it around. By the time it was all over the Nazis had killed 30 MILLION of the Russians and THEY STILL LOST. My point was stiff national resistance beat out a superior military force. Tito and his Partisans seemed to pull off a similar feat when they succeeded in fighting the Nazis in the Balkans. Even in the more policeable countries of western Europe resistance cells still managed to fight and hurt the Nazis.

You need to think about all these facts when you start speculating on what would have happened in Switzerland. They had been an independant confederacy since the seventeenth century and had managed to remain so because of their militia organization. That organization would have never been able to mount an effective resistance against tanks and planes in open conflict. That said once the tanks and planes did their job put the Nazis in Swiss cities in towns what would they have done with a country where every adult male had a military weapon? What would they have done in a landscape where one could disappear and never be found again?

Hitler was insane, but he wasn't stupid. I'm sure he recognized the benefits of keeping the Swiss state just as it was just as much as he recognized the sheer impossibility of subjugating that nation.

Answer 2

No European country remained truly neutral during WWII. Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland all worked to some extent with the Axis. In Switzerland, the people who lived through the war wanted to believe that it was their army and fortifications that kept the Nazis out. Historical research and documents clearly show that if the Nazis wanted to invade Switzerland, it would have been quick and relatively easy. The reason Germany spared its tiny neighbor to the south was because Switzerland proved much more useful as an independent state than as a satellite. The Swiss made many useful weapon components (aluminium for the Luftwaffe, spark plugs for jeeps taken from the Russians, timing devices for bombs, among other things), and thus their factories were not bombed every night. The Swiss National bank bought gold from the Reichsbank, the Reichsbank was given Swiss francs in exchange, and used them to buy cobalt, nickel and tungsten from the other “neutral” countries. The Turks, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish, who were all under heavy pressure from the Allies not to accept direct gold payment from the Reichsbank, then exchanged the Swiss francs for gold. The problem was that the German gold came from the Belgian National bank reserves (not from concentration camps as some sensationalists would have it) and the neutrals knew it. Finally, the Swiss allowed trains to carry food and non-weapon supplies from Germany to Italy, with dozens of trains every day on their way to Africa. But did Switzerland have any other choice? Probably not. Totally surrounded by the Axis, most of its coal supply came from Germany every week, and all of its exports had to go through Axis controlled territory. For a landlocked country with no natural resources, this meant the Swiss had to work out some form of accomodation with their neighbors. The problem is that the postwar generations have been raised to believe that it was the Swiss army, and not the country’s usefulness to the Germans, that protected it from the wrath of war. The Swiss are now coming to terms with this part of their history, as for example the people of France and Japan have. As a foreigner, it is best to avoid passing judgment on them and giving lessons, at the risk of offending your hosts.

Answer 3

The primary reason why Switzerland was not attacked was money. The secondary reason was terrain. The swiss are ringed by the alps, getting in would be no easy matter, and tie up an entire army.

Answer 4

They needed the neutrality of Switzerland to launder their looted money and art works. Switzerland was quite complicit with the Nazis and were able to sell stolen goods in the US and GB during the war without raising an eyebrow. Nothing like a clean middle man to steal your enemy's possessions and sell them to the enemy fighting you on the military front.

Answer 5

Actually your incorrect. It would not have been an easy manner, and because of the Alps. Very difficult terrain to get over, alot of men would of died before getting even half way there. Plus lets say they did take it. What would be the point? There is nothing there for anyone to actually want to fight over.

Answer 6

It is very hard to defeat an army on its home turf. Especially in the mountains, way too many places for ambushes, very limited access by road. Planes would be no help at all, they get shot down too easy. Avalanches and Explosives can't be defeated... Besides, the economic stain it would have put on the Nazis, bad economics... Kind of sounds like Afghanistan don't it?

Answer 7

terrain-wise Switzerland nearly impossible to invade

and secondly, Swiss banks hold a ridiculous amount of foreign money, including German

Attacking the country that holds most of your wealth is maybe the dumbest thing Hitler or anyone could do

Answer 8

If Hitler had succeeded in taking all of Europe except Switzerland you can bet your sweet bippy it would have fallen too. That maniac wanted the whole world and if hadn't been nuts he might have gotten it.