Total resistance

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Total Resistance is a seven-volume instructional brochure, illustrated with black and white sketches, from 1957 during the Cold War . It deals with a possible resistance struggle in Switzerland in the event of a Soviet advance or invasion and was published part-time by Hans von Dach (1926–2003), most recently a major in the Swiss Army .

Publication history

The content of the first and best-known volume The total resistance, small war instructions for everyone appeared for the first time in a series of articles in the military newspaper "Der Schweizer Soldat" and was then published as No. 4 in the series of the Swiss Association of NCOs (SUOV).

The entire series was reprinted several times and sold ten thousand copies in the Federal Republic of Germany and Austria. The book was published in 1965 in English translation with the misleading subtitle "Swiss Army Guide to Guerrilla Warfare and Underground Operations". Hans von Dach also published an eight-volume series of combat technology .

In 1974 the Swiss Chief of Staff refused to introduce the primer as regular regulations, which the Swiss political scientist Albert A. Stahel attributes to the Swiss defense strategy of the time.

In Germany, from 1988 until a few years ago, Total Resistance was the first and so far only book from Switzerland on the list of indexed print media of the Federal Inspectorate. The work continues to circulate as “basic literature” in right and left-wing extremist circles.

content

The first volume of the book series deals with the technical and tactical basics of a small war . The author explains how the leadership of the military forces involved and the civilian resistance groups involved should behave in such a war . It also explains how occupation troops act against civil resistance.

The second book deals with chemical weapons . The author describes the warfare agents used in the First World War as well as their development and code names. The book also discusses the use of chemical warfare agents since 1945, such as B. mustard gas or hydrogen cyanide , their effects, symptoms of poisoning and first aid measures.

The other volumes deal in detail with the manufacture and use of various weapons. Band 3 is concerned with the so-called MP-Partisan 9mm sub-machine gun , band 4 describes the gun model Tarn, Volume 5 deals with booby traps , Volume 6 is a guide for the muffler model TELL and tape 7 goes hand grenades a.

The book closes with the words "It is better to die standing than to live on your knees!"

Effect and topicality

Since the basis of the series of publications was the behavior of historical occupation powers (German Wehrmacht in Warsaw , Soviet Union in Prague and Budapest ), the publication is now politically and technically largely out of date.

Numerous concepts for the sabotage of high-voltage pylons, railroad tracks, transformers, the erection of road barriers, the construction and use of incendiary devices taking into account drafts etc. as well as the hiding of weapons and ammunition are still considered current today. According to investigative authorities, the book has been used by various terrorist organizations since the 1960s.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Marc Tribelhorn: Terror recipes for everyone , NZZ , July 27, 2013, p. 32
  2. ↑ a b The “People's Uprising”: Switzerland's ideas and preparations in the 19th and 20th centuries ( Memento of March 24, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 272 kB) Mauro Mantovani, MILITARY POWER REVUE of the Swiss Army - No. 1/2012
  3. ↑ BPJM aktuell 3/2008 ( Memento from March 24, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 942 kB) BPJM Federal Testing Office, as of 2008 (indexing announced in Federal Gazette No. 211 of November 10, 1988), https: //blog.tagesanzeiger .ch / historyreloaded / index.php / 2401 / the-most-dangerous-book-in-Switzerland /
  4. ↑ Various left and right blogs and pages with the work accessed as pdf, which of course are not linked here. Feb 2017
  5. ↑ https://archive.org/stream/Der_Totale_Widerstand_Major_H._von_Dach_German#page/n247/mode/2up
  6. ↑ Thomas Buomberger. The most dangerous book in Switzerland. Tages-Anzeiger, February 24, 2018