Border fortifications in Switzerland

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The border fortifications of Switzerland were military lines of defense of the Swiss army to maintain independence in terms of armed neutrality and the Hague Agreement on Neutrality . In view of the rapid development of war technology , the Swiss government decided to supplement or strengthen the border fortifications during the Second World War with staggered defensive lines (advanced positions, Limmat position ) and the Reduit .

Fortification Hauenstein: Military road to Belchenflue , built 1914–1915

location

The border fortifications were located along the Swiss border at strategically important points and are still largely preserved today. Dismantling them would be associated with high costs.

history

Border fortifications have existed in Switzerland for thousands of years. While the Helvetii preferred reduit-like high fortresses, the Romans built a border fortification ( Limes ) with watchtowers and forts ( Fort Arbon , Fort Eschenz , Tössegg , etc.) along the Rhine . The medieval city-states protected themselves with castles and around 200 city fortifications. Exposed border villages built fortified churches ( fortified church St. Arbogast , Reformed Church Weiach ). The more the cities and federal estates (later cantons) allied, the more their external borders to be fortified changed. Soon after the Confederation of 1291, Schwyz and Unterwalden began to secure the access to their valleys with letzins . The increased firepower of the artillery in the 16th century caused Zug , Solothurn , Geneva , Zurich and Basel as well as Schaffhausen ( Munot ) to strengthen their fortifications. The threat to Switzerland in the Thirty Years' War led to the expansion of city fortifications with ramparts and bastions in Geneva, Bern , Zurich and Solothurn . In the border areas to the other denomination, the Catholic as well as the Reformed estates set up fortresses, some of which were fought over during the Villmerger Wars .

  • Part of the late Roman fortification of the Rhine near Tössegg

  • Fortifications of the city of Zurich in the 17th century

  • Fortified church St. Arbogast, Muttenz

  • Fortified church Weiach

In the 19th century the idea of ​​staggered border defense emerged. The border fortifications were reinforced with additional fortresses in the hinterland in order to gain time for the arrival of federal reinforcements. In 1831 the fortresses near Aarburg , on the Luziensteig and a dam near Saint-Maurice were built . In 1853–54, the young federal state of Switzerland had a section of the fortification line designed by Sonderbund General Guillaume-Henri Dufour , the Fortini della Fame, built south of Bellinzona . During the Franco-Prussian War , the Swiss Army under General Hans Herzog occupied the border. After more than 20 years in which no major fortifications were built, the opening of the strategically important Gotthard tunnel (1882) and the creation of the two national states of Italy and Germany (1871) between 1885 and 1902 led to the fortification of the Gotthard area ( Fort Hospiz , Forte Airolo , Fortress Motto Bartola , Fort Stöckli , Fort Bühl , Fort Bäzberg ). A little later, in 1892, fortification work began near St-Maurice, and subsequently also on the Simplon and Bellinzona.

First World War

After the outbreak of World War I , the Swiss Army built field fortifications everywhere in the border areas. In Ticino a closed defense position (southern Ticino, was San Jorio Pass ). On the Jura heights in the area of Olten ( fortification Hauenstein ) and in the area of Murten ( fortification Murten / lock on the axis Bielersee - Murtensee - Saane ) fortress systems were built and the borders were occupied in order to prevent any violations of neutrality by Germany and France . 1915 after Italy sided with the Allies was changed , fortifications were at Umbrailpass created.

Second World War

Tunnel in the Reuenthal artillery plant

In the interwar period, the office for fortifications was closed because the importance of fortifications was put into perspective after the experiences of the First World War. The construction of the Maginot Line through France led to a rethink.

Shortly before the Second World War, fortresses were built at various important points in the Swiss border area ( Vallorbe , on the Rhine ). The artillery works fortress Ebersberg (canton Zurich), fortress Reuenthal (canton Aargau), fortress Heldsberg (canton St. Gallen) and Geissberg (Aargau) were built immediately on the border . New systems were built in the Gotthard fortress area , the Saint-Maurice fortress area and the Sargans fortress area .

After the beginning of the Second World War, the troops built extensive barriers and anti-tank barriers , which can still be found today all over Switzerland. In large cities such as Basel (from August 28, 1939 with the border troops ) and Zurich (from November 1939 as part of the Limmat position), defense was organized by the city commandos.

The weakly occupied Swiss western border was a problem of neutrality policy for Switzerland because it could not have prevented the German Wehrmacht from bypassing the Maginot Line in the south. Therefore, the army command under General Guisan concluded a secret agreement ( Maneuver H ) with France , which would have allowed French divisions to invade Switzerland and occupy prepared defensive positions on the Gempen plateau . The agreement, which was ready to be implemented at the end of March 1940, was correct in terms of neutrality law, because there was no automatism and the French troops would only have been set in motion after a German attack and a request from the Federal Council for help.

Under the impression of Germany's lightning wars against Poland and France , General Guisan realized that the army could not fight successfully across the whole of Switzerland, but only mainly in a limited area. A three-stage concept was developed with a defense in the border zone, a first, advanced position in the Swiss Plateau (Limmat position, Hauenstein area, Jura, Jolimont , Mont Vully , Murten, Saane, Lake Geneva , Riviera ) and a central position, the Reduit .

With the operation order No. 13, the advanced position was then given up as an operative position. From the border through the Central Plateau, only a war of delay was to be waged; the majority of the army should withdraw to the Reduit in the Alps in an emergency.

  • Bunker on the banks of the Rhine: The Rheinau - Dachsen - Marthalen blocking point consists of 50 objects

  • Infantry bunker Räbhüsli from 1938 above EW Rheinau (top left), supplemented in 1955 with infantry work

  • Hauenstein: Challhöchi bunker

  • Hauenstein: Rüeblikeller bunker from 1943

  • Promenthouse line on Lake Geneva: Tobleroneweg

  • Iragna -Mairano artillery plant

Cold War

After the Second World War, numerous tank barriers, field fortifications and troop accommodation were dismantled. The threat scenarios of the Cold War led to the further expansion (increase in combat value) of the permanent facilities. Because of the Hungarian crisis of 1956 , the fortress was made ready for war in the winter of 1956. The increasing danger of nuclear war caused by the arms race between the nuclear powers was countered from 1955 to 1962 with the installation of atomic filters in the artillery works.

In the 50s and 60s, a military-political debate took place on the reduction of the large artillery fortresses and the expansion of mobile warfare (mobile defense) with aircraft and tanks. Since the acquisition of a large number of aircraft would have blown the military budget, a compromise was reached in 1966: infantry units close to the border were converted into command posts, while the artillery fortresses in central Switzerland remained in place until the 1990s. With the end of the Cold War in 1989, a large part of the fortress was abandoned as part of the Army Reform 95 . At that time, the fortress, redoubt and border brigades had over 25,000 permanent installations for defense and defense.

The Army Reform XXI , in addition to the dissolution of the Reduit and Border Brigades, brought about a downsizing of the fortress units and a massive reduction in the permanent facilities on transmission systems, command posts, troop protection shelters, medical and logistics facilities, permanent explosive objects, fortress mine throwers and bison batteries.

  • Vickers-Flab / Pak Bunker Roost 1951

  • Rein Artillery Works with Centi Bunker 1990

  • Furggels Fortress: adapted to new forms of threat until the 1990s

  • Infantry work above the north portal of the Koblenz railway tunnel

Fortress museums

The course of history has confirmed the need for border fortifications on all sections of the Swiss national border in order to protect oneself against military aggression and to credibly meet the obligations of neutrality (Hague Agreement). The fortress buildings of the 20th century were only fired for training purposes and the Swiss were spared a war in their own country.

The closure of the fortifications has led to the creation of well over a dozen fortress museums in Switzerland since the 1980s. In addition to securing military-historical buildings, the population has the first opportunity to inspect the works, which were previously subject to confidentiality, and to get an idea of ​​the defense efforts of the militia army and population at the time, with which they wanted to assert their independence and sovereignty.

The following fortress museums are located in the border area (state or reduit border): Full-Reuenthal , Ebersberg , Heldsberg , Grynau , Furggels , Villa Rose near Gland on Tobleroneweg , Museum of the fortress belt Kreuzlingen in Bottighofen .

  • Heldsberg Fortress Museum (entrance) since 1993

  • Furggels Fortress Museum (entrance) since 2010

  • Villa Rose near Gland on Tobleroneweg

  • Observation bunker 1 of the Reuenthal Fortress

  • A 5701 infantry bunker camouflaged as a residential building in Bottighofen, now a museum

literature

Web links

Commons : Border fortifications of Switzerland  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Swiss Federal Constitution, Article 2: The Swiss Confederation protects the freedom and rights of the people and safeguards the independence and security of the country .
  2. ^ Rapold, Hans: The development of the Swiss national fortifications from 1815 to 1921 . in: The history of Swiss fortifications , Zurich 1992, pp. 11–54, here pp. 36–49.
  3. ↑ Jürg Stüssi-Lauterburg : Free rock in brown surf. Speech on the 70th anniversary of the mobilization of war, Jegenstorf, September 2, 2009
  4. ↑ Operation orders from General Henri Guisan No. 12 of July 17, 1940 and No. 13 of May 24, 1941