18 15, Switzerland was recognized as a permanent neutral country at the Vienna conference and was recognized by European powers. The main nationality in Switzerland is Germanic, so Hitler regarded the Swiss as a branch of Germanic nationality. At that time, Germany called the Swiss "Swiss Germans". It can be said that Germany had an idea about Switzerland at first.

Before the outbreak of World War II, the day before Germany invaded Poland, Switzerland reiterated its strict neutrality. 1940, after Germany occupied France, the ambitious Hitler naturally didn't take Switzerland's so-called neutrality too seriously, so he ordered a plan to invade Switzerland, which was in the charge of Loeb, commander-in-chief of C Army. Loeb personally surveyed the border terrain and studied the attack route with the least resistance. In September this year, a battle plan codenamed "Christmas Tree" was put in front of Hitler. According to this plan, Germany first sent infantry to pretend to attack the northern Swiss defense line to attract the main force of the Swiss army, and then dispatched armored forces to outflank the Swiss army and annihilate it in one fell swoop. Generally speaking, the "Christmas tree project" is a replica of the "sickle action" that defeated the British and French Coalition forces.

But after Hitler weighed the pros and cons, the plan was not implemented. There are many reasons. First of all, after Dunkirk's retreat, Germany focused on Britain, and didn't have a chance to invade Switzerland until it invaded the Soviet Union. Secondly, Switzerland is mountainous, and the terrain conditions are very unfavorable for the German armored forces to fight, so they cannot give full play to the advantages of Blitzkrieg. Generally speaking, Nazi Germany was busy invading Switzerland, and it was troublesome to invade Switzerland, but the benefits were not great and it was thankless. There are also some reasons, such as Switzerland's neutral attitude and the tradition that all the people are soldiers, which are relatively secondary. In the case of World War II, international law basically failed, and the cold neutrality could not stop the invasion. As for Switzerland, all people are soldiers, and the Swiss are more aggressive than the Germans. In the face of the powerful Germany at that time, it can be said that it was no use, and all countries had to rely on their strength to speak. (But I heard that if German or British fighter planes dared to fly to Switzerland during World War II, the Swiss army dared to shoot them down directly. I wonder if it's true. )

Although Switzerland claimed to be neutral, its attitude towards Germany during World War II was actually very ambiguous. Economically, Germany has always been Switzerland's largest trading partner. Shortly after the war broke out, Switzerland provided Germany with a loan of10.50 billion Swiss francs. Switzerland also sold electricity to Germany, which kept the German factory in production until Germany was defeated in March 1945. The main watch factories in Switzerland also supply precision parts to Germany. The 40 mm antiaircraft gun provided by Zurich Military Factory is an important defensive weapon for Germany to deal with allied air strikes. Switzerland also refused to help persecuted Jews, and the Swiss authorities clearly stipulated that "Jews should not be regarded as political refugees". By the time of the official war, Switzerland had intercepted more than 654.38 million Jews at the border. Switzerland sometimes even handed these people over directly to the notorious SS. Swiss banks embezzled Jewish property and acted as Nazi gold safes. It is said that at that time, 90% of the gold transactions of Nazi German Imperial Bank were conducted through Swiss banks. A considerable part of the huge property plundered by the Nazis through the war was also deposited in Swiss banks. With the help of Swiss banks, Hitler obtained valuable foreign exchange, thus purchasing important materials for maintaining the war in the world market. The vice president of Nazi German Imperial Bank simply said bluntly: "It is of great political significance for Switzerland to allow free foreign exchange trading, which is a basic principle for us to maintain its independence."

After the war, German Weekly pointed out that Switzerland was "neutral" only because it lacked formal cooperation with the Third Reich.

To sum up, the reason why Germany temporarily gave up the idea of invading Switzerland was because of the change of the original war situation and the complicated geographical environment of Switzerland itself. Later, Switzerland's so-called "neutral" attitude of catering to and helping Germany made Germany completely cut off the idea of invading Switzerland. They are all out of breath and wearing a pair of pants. Why did it invade it?