Operation Tannenbaum
Encyclopedia
Operation Tannenbaum known earlier as Operation Green, was a planned but cancelled invasion of Switzerland
by Nazi Germany
during World War II
.
came to power in 1933, he made overtures towards the various Nazi
-leaning organizations in German-speaking
countries, particularly Austria
and Switzerland.
For tactical reasons Hitler made repeated (and evidently false) assurances before the outbreak of the Second World War that Germany would respect Swiss neutrality in the event of a military conflict in Europe. In February 1937 he announced that "at all times, whatever happens, we will respect the inviolability and neutrality of Switzerland" to the Swiss federal councillor Edmund Schulthess
, reiterating this promise shortly before the German invasion of Poland
. These were, however, purely political maneuvers intended to guarantee Switzerland's passiveness. Nazi Germany planned to dispose of that country's independence after it had defeated its main enemies on the continent first.
In a conversation held with Fascist Italy
's leader Benito Mussolini
and Galeazzo Ciano
(the Foreign Minister of Italy) in June 1941 Hitler stated his opinion on Switzerland quite plainly:
In a later discussion the German Foreign Minister
Joachim von Ribbentrop
directly alluded to the possibility of carving up Switzerland between the two Axis powers
:
In August 1942 Hitler further described Switzerland as "a pimple
on the face of Europe
" and as a state that no longer had a right to exist, denouncing the Swiss people as "a misbegotten branch of our Volk."
Much as Hitler despised the democratically-minded German Swiss as the "wayward branch of the German people
", he still acknowledge their status as Germans. Furthermore, the openly pan-German
political aims of the NSDAP called for the unification of all Germans into a Greater Germany
, including the Swiss people. The first goal of the 25-point National Socialist Program
stated that "We [the Nazi Party] demand the unification of all Germans in the Greater Germany on the basis of the people's right to self-determination
."
In their maps of Greater Germany, German textbooks included the Netherlands
, Belgium
, Austria
, Bohemia-Moravia
, the German-speaking parts of Switzerland, and western Poland
from Danzig
to Kraków
. Ignoring Switzerland's status as a sovereign state, these maps frequently showed its territory as a German Gau. The author of one of these textbooks, Ewald Banse, explained, "Quite naturally we count you Swiss as offshoots of the German nation, along with the Dutch
, the Flemings, the Lorrainers, the Alsatians, the Austrians
and the Bohemians... One day we will group ourselves around a single banner, and whosoever shall wish to separate us, we will exterminate!" Various Nazis were vocal about the German intent to "expand Germany's boundaries to the farthest limits of the old Holy Empire
, and even beyond."
Though not ideologically or politically aligned with the Nazis himself even if he offered them intellectual support, geopolitician
Karl Haushofer
had also advocated for the partition of Switzerland between its surrounding countries in his work, where Romandy (Welschland) would be awarded to France
, Ticino
to Italy
, and Central and Eastern Switzerland to Germany.
s (out of a total multiyear budget of 100 million francs) to go towards modernization. With Hitler’s renunciation of the Treaty of Versailles
in 1935, this spending jumped up to 90 million francs. The K31
became the standard-issue infantry rifle in 1933, and was superior to the German Kar98
in ease of use, accuracy, and weight. By the end of World War II, nearly 350,000 would be produced.
Switzerland has a unique form of generalship. In peacetime, there is no officer with a rank higher than that of Oberst
(colonel). However, in times of war and in 'need,' the Bundesversammlung elects a General to command the army
and air force
. On August 30, 1939, Henri Guisan
was elected with 204 votes out of 227 cast. He immediately took charge of the situation.
The invasion of Poland by the Wehrmacht
three days later at noon caused Great Britain
to declare war on Germany at 12:10. Guisan called a general mobilization, and issued Operationsbefehl Nr. 1, the first of what was to be a series of evolving defensive plans. The first assigned the existing three army corps to the east, north, and west, with reserves in the center and south of the country. Guisan reported to the Federal Council on September 7 that by the moment of the British declaration of war, "our entire army had been in its operational positions for ten minutes." He also had his Chief of the General Staff increase the service eligibility age from 48 to 60 years old (men of these ages would form the rear-echelon Landsturm units), and ordered the formation of an entirely new army corps of 100,000 men.
Germany started planning the invasion of Switzerland on 25 June 1940, the day France surrendered. At this point the German Army in France
consisted of three army groups with 2 million soldiers in 102 divisions. Switzerland and Liechtenstein
were completely surrounded by Occupied France and the Axis Powers, and so Guisan issued Operationsbefehl Nr. 10, a complete overhaul of existing Swiss defensive plans. The St. Maurice and St. Gotthard Passes in the south and the Fortress Sargans in the northeast would serve as the defense line. The Alps would be their fortress. 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Army Corps were to fight delaying actions at the border, while all who could retreated to the Alpine refuge known as the Réduit national
. The population centers were, however, all located in the flat plains of the north. They would have to be left to the Germans in order for the rest to survive.
Hitler demanded to see plans for the invasion of Switzerland. Franz Halder
, the head of OKH
, recalled: "I was constantly hearing of outbursts of Hitler’s fury against Switzerland, which, given his mentality, might have led at any minute to military activities for the army." Captain Otto Wilhelm von Menges in OKH submitted a draft plan for the invasion. Generaloberst
Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb
's Heeresgruppe ‘C’
(HGr. C), led by Generalleutnant
Wilhelm List and 12th Army would conduct the attack. Leeb himself personally reconnoitered the terrain, studying the most promising invasion routes and paths of least resistance. Menges noted, in his plan, that Swiss resistance was unlikely and that a nonviolent Anschluss
was the most likely result. With "the current political situation in Switzerland," he wrote, "it might accede to ultimatum demands in a peaceful manner, so that after a warlike border crossing a rapid transition to a peaceful invasion must be assured."
The plan continued to undergo revision until October, when 12th Army submitted its fourth draft, now called Operation Tannenbaum. The original plan called for 21 German divisions, but that figure was revised downwards to 11 by OKH. Halder himself had studied the border areas, and concluded that the "Jura
frontier offers no favorable base for an attack. Switzerland rises, in successive waves of wood-covered terrain across the axis of an attack. The crossing points on the river Doubs and the border are few; the Swiss frontier position is strong." He decided on an infantry feint in the Jura in order to draw out the Swiss Army and then cut it off in the rear, as had been done in France. With the 11 German divisions and roughly 15 more Italian divisions prepared to enter from the south, the Swiss were looking at an invasion by somewhere between 300,000 and 500,000 men.
Hitler never gave the go-ahead, for reasons still uncertain today. Although the Wehrmacht
feigned moves toward Switzerland in its offensives, it never attempted to invade. After D-Day
, the operation was put on hold, and Switzerland remained neutral for the duration of the war.
" Swiss population for Germandom, and aimed at direct annexation into the German Reich
of at least its ethnic German parts.
With this purpose in mind Heinrich Himmler
discussed the suitability of various people for the position of Reichskommissar
for the 're-union
' of Switzerland with Germany and its subsequent Reichsstatthalter
with his subordinate Gottlob Berger
in September 1941. This yet-to-be-chosen official would have had the task of facilitating the total amalgamation (zusammenwachsen) of the Swiss and German populations.
A document named Aktion S (bearing the full letterhead Reichsführer-SS
, SS-Hauptamt
, Aktion S[chweiz]) was also found within the Himmler files. It detailed at length the planned process for the establishment of Nazi rule in Switzerland from its initial conquest by the Wehrmacht
up to its complete consolidation as a German province. It is not known whether this prepared plan was endorsed by any high-level members of the German government.
After the Second Armistice at Compiègne in June 1940, the Reich Interior Ministry produced a memorandum on the annexation of a strip of eastern France from the mouth of the Somme
to Lake Geneva
, intended as a reserve for post-war German colonization. The planned dissection of Switzerland would have accorded with this new French-German border, effectively leaving the French-speaking region of Romandy to be also annexed into the Reich despite the linguistic difference.
under the rule of Benito Mussolini
desired the Italian-speaking areas of Switzerland as part of its irredentist claims
in Europe, particularely the Swiss canton of Ticino
. In a tour of the Italian alpine regions he announced to his entourage that "the New Europe…could not have more than four or five large states; the small ones [would] have no further raison d'être and [would] have to disappear".
The country's future in an Axis-dominated Europe was further discussed in a 1940 round-table conference between Italian foreign minister Galeazzo Ciano
and German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop
, also attended by Hitler. Ciano proposed that in the event of Switzerland's dissolution, it should be vivisected along the central chain of the Western Alps, since Italy desired the areas to the south of this demarcation line as part of its own war-aims. This would have left Italy in control of Ticino, Valais
, and Graubünden
.
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
by Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Background
Even before the outbreak of war, Switzerland had every reason to expect invasion. After Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
came to power in 1933, he made overtures towards the various Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
-leaning organizations in German-speaking
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
countries, particularly Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
and Switzerland.
For tactical reasons Hitler made repeated (and evidently false) assurances before the outbreak of the Second World War that Germany would respect Swiss neutrality in the event of a military conflict in Europe. In February 1937 he announced that "at all times, whatever happens, we will respect the inviolability and neutrality of Switzerland" to the Swiss federal councillor Edmund Schulthess
Edmund Schulthess
Edmund Schulthess was a Swiss politician.He was the son of Edmund Schulthess and wife Cornelia Brigitta Marth ....
, reiterating this promise shortly before the German invasion of Poland
Invasion of Poland (1939)
The Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign or 1939 Defensive War in Poland and the Poland Campaign in Germany, was an invasion of Poland by Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the start of World War II in Europe...
. These were, however, purely political maneuvers intended to guarantee Switzerland's passiveness. Nazi Germany planned to dispose of that country's independence after it had defeated its main enemies on the continent first.
In a conversation held with Fascist Italy
Fascist Italy
"Fascist Italy" refers to Italy under the rule of Benito Mussolini and Italian Fascism. The Fascists led two polities:*The Kingdom of Italy , under the National Fascist Party, and,...
's leader Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
and Galeazzo Ciano
Galeazzo Ciano
Gian Galeazzo Ciano, 2nd Count of Cortellazzo and Buccari was an Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Benito Mussolini's son-in-law. In early 1944 Count Ciano was shot by firing squad at the behest of his father-in-law, Mussolini under pressure from Nazi Germany.-Early life:Ciano was born in...
(the Foreign Minister of Italy) in June 1941 Hitler stated his opinion on Switzerland quite plainly:
In a later discussion the German Foreign Minister
Minister for Foreign Affairs (Germany)
The Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs is the head of the Federal Foreign Office and a member of the Cabinet of Germany. The current office holder is Guido Westerwelle...
Joachim von Ribbentrop
Joachim von Ribbentrop
Ulrich Friedrich Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop was Foreign Minister of Germany from 1938 until 1945. He was later hanged for war crimes after the Nuremberg Trials.-Early life:...
directly alluded to the possibility of carving up Switzerland between the two Axis powers
Axis Powers
The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...
:
In August 1942 Hitler further described Switzerland as "a pimple
Pimple
A pimple, zit or spot is a kind of acne, and one of the many results of excess oil getting trapped in the pores. Some of the varieties are pustules or papules....
on the face of Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
" and as a state that no longer had a right to exist, denouncing the Swiss people as "a misbegotten branch of our Volk."
Much as Hitler despised the democratically-minded German Swiss as the "wayward branch of the German people
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
", he still acknowledge their status as Germans. Furthermore, the openly pan-German
Pan-Germanism
Pan-Germanism is a pan-nationalist political idea. Pan-Germanists originally sought to unify the German-speaking populations of Europe in a single nation-state known as Großdeutschland , where "German-speaking" was taken to include the Low German, Frisian and Dutch-speaking populations of the Low...
political aims of the NSDAP called for the unification of all Germans into a Greater Germany
German question
The German question was a debate in the 19th century, especially during the Revolutions of 1848, over the best way to achieve the Unification of Germany. From 1815–1871, a number of 37 independent German-speaking states existed within the German Confederation...
, including the Swiss people. The first goal of the 25-point National Socialist Program
National Socialist Program
The National Socialist Programme , was first, the political program of the German National Socialist Party in 1918, and later, in the 1920s, of the National Socialist German Workers' Party headed by Adolf...
stated that "We [the Nazi Party] demand the unification of all Germans in the Greater Germany on the basis of the people's right to self-determination
Self-determination
Self-determination is the principle in international law that nations have the right to freely choose their sovereignty and international political status with no external compulsion or external interference...
."
In their maps of Greater Germany, German textbooks included the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, Bohemia-Moravia
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
, the German-speaking parts of Switzerland, and western Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
from Danzig
Gdansk
Gdańsk is a Polish city on the Baltic coast, at the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.The city lies on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay , in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the...
to Kraków
Kraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
. Ignoring Switzerland's status as a sovereign state, these maps frequently showed its territory as a German Gau. The author of one of these textbooks, Ewald Banse, explained, "Quite naturally we count you Swiss as offshoots of the German nation, along with the Dutch
Dutch people
The Dutch people are an ethnic group native to the Netherlands. They share a common culture and speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Suriname, Chile, Brazil, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and the United...
, the Flemings, the Lorrainers, the Alsatians, the Austrians
Austrians
Austrians are a nation and ethnic group, consisting of the population of the Republic of Austria and its historical predecessor states who share a common Austrian culture and Austrian descent....
and the Bohemians... One day we will group ourselves around a single banner, and whosoever shall wish to separate us, we will exterminate!" Various Nazis were vocal about the German intent to "expand Germany's boundaries to the farthest limits of the old Holy Empire
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a realm that existed from 962 to 1806 in Central Europe.It was ruled by the Holy Roman Emperor. Its character changed during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, when the power of the emperor gradually weakened in favour of the princes...
, and even beyond."
Though not ideologically or politically aligned with the Nazis himself even if he offered them intellectual support, geopolitician
Geopolitics
Geopolitics, from Greek Γη and Πολιτική in broad terms, is a theory that describes the relation between politics and territory whether on local or international scale....
Karl Haushofer
Karl Haushofer
Karl Ernst Haushofer was a German general, geographer and geopolitician. Through his student Rudolf Hess, Haushofer's ideas may have influenced the development of Adolf Hitler's expansionist strategies, although Haushofer denied direct influence on the Nazi regime.-Biography:Haushofer belonged to...
had also advocated for the partition of Switzerland between its surrounding countries in his work, where Romandy (Welschland) would be awarded to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Ticino
Ticino
Canton Ticino or Ticino is the southernmost canton of Switzerland. Named after the Ticino river, it is the only canton in which Italian is the sole official language...
to Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, and Central and Eastern Switzerland to Germany.
Military preparations
An increase in Swiss defense spending was approved, with a first installment of 15 million Swiss francSwiss franc
The franc is the currency and legal tender of Switzerland and Liechtenstein; it is also legal tender in the Italian exclave Campione d'Italia. Although not formally legal tender in the German exclave Büsingen , it is in wide daily use there...
s (out of a total multiyear budget of 100 million francs) to go towards modernization. With Hitler’s renunciation of the Treaty of Versailles
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...
in 1935, this spending jumped up to 90 million francs. The K31
K31
The Karabiner Model 1931 is a magazine-fed, straight-pull bolt-action rifle. It was the standard issue rifle of the Swiss armed forces from 1933 until 1958, though examples remained in service into the 1970s...
became the standard-issue infantry rifle in 1933, and was superior to the German Kar98
Karabiner 98k
The Karabiner 98 Kurz was a bolt action rifle chambered for the 8x57mm IS/7.92×57mm IS cartridge that was adopted as the standard service rifle in 1935 by the German Wehrmacht. It was one of the final developments in the long line of Mauser military rifles...
in ease of use, accuracy, and weight. By the end of World War II, nearly 350,000 would be produced.
Switzerland has a unique form of generalship. In peacetime, there is no officer with a rank higher than that of Oberst
Oberst
Oberst is a military rank in several German-speaking and Scandinavian countries, equivalent to Colonel. It is currently used by both the ground and air forces of Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark and Norway. The Swedish rank överste is a direct translation, as are the Finnish rank eversti...
(colonel). However, in times of war and in 'need,' the Bundesversammlung elects a General to command the army
Military of Switzerland
The Swiss Armed Forces perform the roles of Switzerland's militia and regular army. Under the country's militia system, professional soldiers constitute about 5 percent of military personnel; the rest are male citizen conscripts 19 to 34 years old...
and air force
Swiss Air Force
The Swiss Air Force is the air component of the Swiss Armed Forces, established on July 31, 1914, as part of the Army and as of January 1966 an independent service.In peacetime, Dübendorf is the operational Air Force HQ...
. On August 30, 1939, Henri Guisan
Henri Guisan
Henri Guisan was a Swiss army officer, and held the office of the General of the Swiss Army during World War II. He was the fourth and the most recent man to be appointed to the rarely used Swiss rank of General, and was possibly Switzerland's most famous soldier...
was elected with 204 votes out of 227 cast. He immediately took charge of the situation.
The invasion of Poland by the Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
three days later at noon caused Great Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
to declare war on Germany at 12:10. Guisan called a general mobilization, and issued Operationsbefehl Nr. 1, the first of what was to be a series of evolving defensive plans. The first assigned the existing three army corps to the east, north, and west, with reserves in the center and south of the country. Guisan reported to the Federal Council on September 7 that by the moment of the British declaration of war, "our entire army had been in its operational positions for ten minutes." He also had his Chief of the General Staff increase the service eligibility age from 48 to 60 years old (men of these ages would form the rear-echelon Landsturm units), and ordered the formation of an entirely new army corps of 100,000 men.
Germany started planning the invasion of Switzerland on 25 June 1940, the day France surrendered. At this point the German Army in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
consisted of three army groups with 2 million soldiers in 102 divisions. Switzerland and Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein
The Principality of Liechtenstein is a doubly landlocked alpine country in Central Europe, bordered by Switzerland to the west and south and by Austria to the east. Its area is just over , and it has an estimated population of 35,000. Its capital is Vaduz. The biggest town is Schaan...
were completely surrounded by Occupied France and the Axis Powers, and so Guisan issued Operationsbefehl Nr. 10, a complete overhaul of existing Swiss defensive plans. The St. Maurice and St. Gotthard Passes in the south and the Fortress Sargans in the northeast would serve as the defense line. The Alps would be their fortress. 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Army Corps were to fight delaying actions at the border, while all who could retreated to the Alpine refuge known as the Réduit national
National Redoubt (Switzerland)
The Swiss National Redoubt was a defensive plan developed by the Swiss government beginning in the 1880s to respond to foreign invasion. In the opening years of World War II the plan was expanded and refined to deal with a potential German invasion. The German plan, Operation Tannenbaum, was real,...
. The population centers were, however, all located in the flat plains of the north. They would have to be left to the Germans in order for the rest to survive.
Hitler demanded to see plans for the invasion of Switzerland. Franz Halder
Franz Halder
Franz Halder was a German General and the head of the Army General Staff from 1938 until September, 1942, when he was dismissed after frequent disagreements with Adolf Hitler.-Early life:...
, the head of OKH
Oberkommando des Heeres
The Oberkommando des Heeres was Nazi Germany's High Command of the Army from 1936 to 1945. The Oberkommando der Wehrmacht commanded OKH only in theory...
, recalled: "I was constantly hearing of outbursts of Hitler’s fury against Switzerland, which, given his mentality, might have led at any minute to military activities for the army." Captain Otto Wilhelm von Menges in OKH submitted a draft plan for the invasion. Generaloberst
Colonel General
Colonel General is a senior rank of General. North Korea and Russia are two countries which have used the rank extensively throughout their histories...
Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb
Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb
Wilhelm Josef Franz Ritter von Leeb was a German Field Marshal during World War II. - Youth :...
's Heeresgruppe ‘C’
Army Group C
Army Group C was an army group of the German Wehrmacht during the Second World War.-Career:Army Group C was set up from Heeresgruppenkommando 2 in Frankfurt on 26 August 1939...
(HGr. C), led by Generalleutnant
General (Germany)
General is presently the highest rank of the German Army and Luftwaffe . It is the equivalent to the rank of Admiral in the German Navy .-Early history:...
Wilhelm List and 12th Army would conduct the attack. Leeb himself personally reconnoitered the terrain, studying the most promising invasion routes and paths of least resistance. Menges noted, in his plan, that Swiss resistance was unlikely and that a nonviolent Anschluss
Anschluss
The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....
was the most likely result. With "the current political situation in Switzerland," he wrote, "it might accede to ultimatum demands in a peaceful manner, so that after a warlike border crossing a rapid transition to a peaceful invasion must be assured."
The plan continued to undergo revision until October, when 12th Army submitted its fourth draft, now called Operation Tannenbaum. The original plan called for 21 German divisions, but that figure was revised downwards to 11 by OKH. Halder himself had studied the border areas, and concluded that the "Jura
Jura mountains
The Jura Mountains are a small mountain range located north of the Alps, separating the Rhine and Rhone rivers and forming part of the watershed of each...
frontier offers no favorable base for an attack. Switzerland rises, in successive waves of wood-covered terrain across the axis of an attack. The crossing points on the river Doubs and the border are few; the Swiss frontier position is strong." He decided on an infantry feint in the Jura in order to draw out the Swiss Army and then cut it off in the rear, as had been done in France. With the 11 German divisions and roughly 15 more Italian divisions prepared to enter from the south, the Swiss were looking at an invasion by somewhere between 300,000 and 500,000 men.
Hitler never gave the go-ahead, for reasons still uncertain today. Although the Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
feigned moves toward Switzerland in its offensives, it never attempted to invade. After D-Day
D-Day
D-Day is a term often used in military parlance to denote the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. "D-Day" often represents a variable, designating the day upon which some significant event will occur or has occurred; see Military designation of days and hours for similar...
, the operation was put on hold, and Switzerland remained neutral for the duration of the war.
German plans for Nazi rule in Switzerland
The German political objective in the expected conquest of Switzerland was to regain the bulk of the "racially suitableRacial policy of Nazi Germany
The racial policy of Nazi Germany was a set of policies and laws implemented by Nazi Germany, asserting the superiority of the "Aryan race", and based on a specific racist doctrine which claimed scientific legitimacy...
" Swiss population for Germandom, and aimed at direct annexation into the German Reich
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
of at least its ethnic German parts.
With this purpose in mind Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
discussed the suitability of various people for the position of Reichskommissar
Reichskommissar
Reichskommissar , in German history, was an official gubernatorial title used for various public offices during the period of the German Empire and the Nazi Third Reich....
for the 're-union
Anschluss
The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....
' of Switzerland with Germany and its subsequent Reichsstatthalter
Reichsstatthalter
The term Reichsstatthalter was used twice for different offices, in the imperial Hohenzollern dynasty's German Empire and the single-party Nazi Third Reich.- "Statthalter des Reiches" 1879-1918 in Alsace-Lorraine :...
with his subordinate Gottlob Berger
Gottlob Berger
Gottlob Berger was a German Nazi who held the rank of Obergruppenführer during World War II and was later convicted of war crimes.In 1939, he was Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler's main recruiting officer...
in September 1941. This yet-to-be-chosen official would have had the task of facilitating the total amalgamation (zusammenwachsen) of the Swiss and German populations.
A document named Aktion S (bearing the full letterhead Reichsführer-SS
Reichsführer-SS
was a special SS rank that existed between the years of 1925 and 1945. Reichsführer-SS was a title from 1925 to 1933 and, after 1934, the highest rank of the German Schutzstaffel .-Definition:...
, SS-Hauptamt
SS-Hauptamt
The SS-Hauptamt was the central command office of the German Schutzstaffel in Nazi Germany until 1940.-Formation:...
, Aktion S[chweiz]) was also found within the Himmler files. It detailed at length the planned process for the establishment of Nazi rule in Switzerland from its initial conquest by the Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
up to its complete consolidation as a German province. It is not known whether this prepared plan was endorsed by any high-level members of the German government.
After the Second Armistice at Compiègne in June 1940, the Reich Interior Ministry produced a memorandum on the annexation of a strip of eastern France from the mouth of the Somme
Somme
Somme is a department of France, located in the north of the country and named after the Somme river. It is part of the Picardy region of France....
to Lake Geneva
Lake Geneva
Lake Geneva or Lake Léman is a lake in Switzerland and France. It is one of the largest lakes in Western Europe. 59.53 % of it comes under the jurisdiction of Switzerland , and 40.47 % under France...
, intended as a reserve for post-war German colonization. The planned dissection of Switzerland would have accorded with this new French-German border, effectively leaving the French-speaking region of Romandy to be also annexed into the Reich despite the linguistic difference.
Italian involvement
Germany's wartime ally ItalyKingdom of Italy (1861–1946)
The Kingdom of Italy was a state forged in 1861 by the unification of Italy under the influence of the Kingdom of Sardinia, which was its legal predecessor state...
under the rule of Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
desired the Italian-speaking areas of Switzerland as part of its irredentist claims
Italia irredenta
Italian irredentism was an Italian Irredentist movement that aimed at the unification of all ethnically Italian peoples....
in Europe, particularely the Swiss canton of Ticino
Ticino
Canton Ticino or Ticino is the southernmost canton of Switzerland. Named after the Ticino river, it is the only canton in which Italian is the sole official language...
. In a tour of the Italian alpine regions he announced to his entourage that "the New Europe…could not have more than four or five large states; the small ones [would] have no further raison d'être and [would] have to disappear".
The country's future in an Axis-dominated Europe was further discussed in a 1940 round-table conference between Italian foreign minister Galeazzo Ciano
Galeazzo Ciano
Gian Galeazzo Ciano, 2nd Count of Cortellazzo and Buccari was an Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Benito Mussolini's son-in-law. In early 1944 Count Ciano was shot by firing squad at the behest of his father-in-law, Mussolini under pressure from Nazi Germany.-Early life:Ciano was born in...
and German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop
Joachim von Ribbentrop
Ulrich Friedrich Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop was Foreign Minister of Germany from 1938 until 1945. He was later hanged for war crimes after the Nuremberg Trials.-Early life:...
, also attended by Hitler. Ciano proposed that in the event of Switzerland's dissolution, it should be vivisected along the central chain of the Western Alps, since Italy desired the areas to the south of this demarcation line as part of its own war-aims. This would have left Italy in control of Ticino, Valais
Valais
The Valais is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland in the southwestern part of the country, around the valley of the Rhône from its headwaters to Lake Geneva, separating the Pennine Alps from the Bernese Alps. The canton is one of the drier parts of Switzerland in its central Rhône valley...
, and Graubünden
Graubünden
Graubünden or Grisons is the largest and easternmost canton of Switzerland. The canton shares borders with the cantons of Ticino, Uri, Glarus and St. Gallen and international borders with Italy, Austria and Liechtenstein...
.
Sources
- Codevilla, Angelo. Between the Alps and a Hard Place: Switzerland in World War II and Moral Blackmail Today Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 2000.
- Halbrook, Stephen P. The Swiss and the Nazis: How the Alpine Republic Survived in the Shadow of the Third Reich. Philadelphia: Casemate, 2006.
- Halbrook, Stephen P. Target Switzerland: Swiss Armed Neutrality in World War II. Rockville Centre, N.Y.: Sarpedon, 1998.
- Karsh, Efraim. Neutrality and Small States: The European Experience in World War Two and Beyond. New York: Routledge, 1988.
- Kreis, Georg, ed. Switzerland and the Second World War. Portland, Ore.: Frank Cass, 2000.
- Resultate der Wahlen des Bundesrats, der Bundeskanzler, und des Generals Seite. Bern: Schweizer Bundesversammlungsdienst, n.d.
- Steinberg, Jonathan. Why Switzerland? Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
- Tagesbefehle des Generals, 1939-1945. Bern: Eidg. Militärbibliothek, n.d.
- Tanner, Stephen. Refuge from the Reich: American Airmen and Switzerland during World War II. Rockville Centre, N.Y.: Sarpedon, 2000.
- Urner, Klaus. "Let’s Swallow Switzerland": Hitler’s Plans Against the Swiss Confederation. Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2001.
- Vagts, Detlev F. "Switzerland, International Law and World War II." The American Journal of International Law 91.3 (July 1997), 466-475.
- Weinberg, Gerhard L. A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II. 2nd Edition. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
- Weinberg, Gerhard L. "German Plans and Policies Regarding Neutral Nations in World War II with Special Reference to Switzerland." German Studies Review 22.1 (February 1999), 99-103.
- Williamson, Gordon. Gebirgsjäger: German Mountain Trooper, 1939-1945. Oxford: Osprey, 2003.
- Williamson, Gordon. German Mountain & Ski Troops, 1939-1945. Oxford: Osprey, 1996.
External links
- Andreas P. Herren, Tannenbaum 1940. A Swiss site with research about the Swiss and German operational planning as well as maps and charts.
- "Operation Tannenbaum." An overview of the military planning, and a counterfactual examination of a German invasion.
- Stephen P. Halbrook, "Target Switzerland." A lecture promoting Halbrook's book on Axis plans against Switzerland.
- "Switzerland's Neutrality: Did Switzerland prolong World War II?." The question, extent, and effect of Switzerland's neutrality in World War II.