Could the Germans have sucessfully invaded and occupied Switzerland?

[Cook]

Was their any "Greater Germany" feeling among the German speakers like there was in the Sudetenland?

The Greater Germany feeling in the Sudetenland was a product of Herr Goebbels’ Propaganda ministry; Henlein’s Sudeten German Party was both massively financed by the Third Reich and provided with trained agitators to create incidents within the Sudetenland.

There was a embryonic Nazi Party in Switzerland; the National Front and National Movement, but it had been given a low priority in financing from the Reich. It was outlawed by Swiss authorities in 1940. Leading members of the National movement were designated as Gauleiters for the Swiss cantons, doubtless a suitable Quisling could have been found among them to invite the German army in to protect the Germanic Swiss if it had been given a higher priority.

In the same sense as the population of Australia is 90% ethnic English.

Which is the same sense as Austrians, and Sudeten Germans were German. By the way, in 1942 the fiercely patriotic Australian, Prime Minister John Curtin repeatedly referred to Australians as British.

 

[altamiro]

The Greater Germany feeling in the Sudetenland was a product of Herr Goebbels’ Propaganda ministry; Henlein’s Sudeten German Party was both massively financed by the Third Reich and provided with trained agitators to create incidents within the Sudetenland.

There was a embryonic Nazi Party in Switzerland; the National Front and National Movement, but it had been given a low priority in financing from the Reich. It was outlawed by Swiss authorities in 1940. Leading members of the National movement were designated as Gauleiters for the Swiss cantons, doubtless a suitable Quisling could have been found among them to invite the German army in to protect the Germanic Swiss if it had been given a higher priority.


Which is the same sense as Austrians, and Sudeten Germans were German. By the way, in 1942 the fiercely patriotic Australian, Prime Minister John Curtin repeatedly referred to Australians as British.

Except that Austrian ruling classes as well as much of the population saw themselves as German (not "ethnically German" or some other qualifiers, just German) and tried to take active part in controlling the rest of Germany (via HRE and German Confederation) until 1870, and sulked for not being able to do so any more for decades afterwards - while the Swiss had no especially strong political or cultural connections (beyond mutually intelligible language) to Germany and it's predecessor states for centuries before that. The German-speaking Swiss are (and were at the time already) just as much Germans as the Dutch were Germans. Which means, they weren't. There war a brief increase in Pan-Germanic popularity in Switzerland around 1890-1900, but this was a fad that died quickly after the German military attache said some not well thought out things to the Swiss army chief during a maneuver, with press close by.

Contrary to that, the Sudeten Germans were just 25 years ago German-Austrians and looked to Vienna (see above for Austrians). Whatever Dr Goebbels produced, he hasn't built it from scratch. A national identity of German speaking Austrians based on not being Germans is a post WW2 development. Between the wars, the main opposition to being lumped together with Germany was based on fear of being relegated to a backwater status within the greater Germany, or disagreement with the political system prevalent in Germany at the respective time.

 

[BlairWitch749]

yes, and with little difficulty

after case yellow the germans can attack on a front the width of the entire country

they would also have total air superiority

the main low lying cities would be captured in a few days which would effectively end mainstream resistance (how many people are going to hold out in the mountains with the germans in possession of their women and children)

considering the germans blitzed through greece in a couple weeks i can't imagine switzerland (being very close to main german staging bases) would be anything but a rapid success

 

[Alamo]

the main low lying cities would be captured in a few days which would effectively end mainstream resistance (how many people are going to hold out in the mountains with the germans in possession of their women and children)

The National Redoubt defense plan that Switzerland was employing historically expected that the lowlands where the bulk of the populace lived would quickly fall - the intent was to withdraw the army in good order to the fortified mountains, where they could potentially hold out for years, serving as a thorn in the side of German and Italian forces.

 

[BlairWitch749]

The National Redoubt defense plan that Switzerland was employing historically expected that the lowlands where the bulk of the populace lived would quickly fall - the intent was to withdraw the army in good order to the fortified mountains, where they could potentially hold out for years, serving as a thorn in the side of German and Italian forces.

except in practice that wouldn't work because it's built on the idea that the army could maintain morale with the germans controlling all the valuable parts of the country including having all the women and children for reprisals/threats bargaining etc

more to the point, there is nothing of value in the mountainous parts of switzerland anyway, so the germans could simply block the roads and leave them there to rot/freeze until they surrender

 

[Colin]

I used to own a board game called Third Reich which enable you to re-fight WW2 in Europe. As the Axis (or indeed the Allies) you had the opportunity to invade and conquer any of Spain, Portugal, Sweden and Turkey. But Switzerland was represented by four shaded hexes that were completely inaccessible.

I think it would have been interesting to have had Switzerland invaded but difficult to war-game it in such a vast scenario.

Also, and the Fatherland example is instructive here, in periods where there are large great power blocks, some neutral territory between them is useful for both sides.