Chocolate, luxury watches, cuckoo clocks… and bunkers. Even if they do not appear on the postcards of tourist pharmacies in Basel or Geneva, we could add fallout shelters to the list of Swiss specialties: there are a thousand times more of them than banks on its territory, enough to shelter 101% of its population. But why such caution?
To understand it, we have to go back two centuries. In 1815, the Congress of Vienna resulted in a European treaty “bearing recognition and guarantee of the perpetual neutrality of Switzerland and the inviolability of its territory”. The text ratifies the famous Swiss neutrality, the foundation of its national identity, which ensures it a place well away from international conflicts. However, if the country assumes its policy of non-interventionism (even pushing back several thousand Jewish refugees at the border during the Second World War), the government of the Swiss Confederation is not indifferent to the geopolitical turmoil shaking the continent. Quite the contrary.
Everyone to the shelters!
After 1945, the nuclear threat became synonymous with global danger, without borders, worrying military and civilian populations, belligerent nations as much as neutral countries. The construction of the Berlin Wall (1961) then the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) pushed the planet to the brink of chaos: the following year, Switzerland ratified the obligation that each new residential area being built be equipped with a bunker. “Every resident must have a protected place in a shelter located near their place of residence”specifies article 60 of the federal law on the protection of the population and on civil protection, still in force today.
From the 1960s, therefore, while the two superpowers – the United States and the USSR – amassed nuclear warheads at a breakneck pace, the Swiss Confederation injected the equivalent of 12 billion dollars into the construction of anti-atomic shelters. Faced with two blocs obsessed with destruction, the small country invested considerable resources in protecting its population: in 1970, its civil defense budget was more or less equivalent to that of the United States!
“On a daily basis, the shelters are available for other purposes, in particular as cellars, warehouses, DIY and games rooms, association premises or archives, the large shelters can be used as underground car parks.”
The maneuver is bearing fruit. “The majority of the population lives (in) buildings equipped with their own protected shelterswelcomes today the Federal Office for Population Protection (OFPP), which has its headquarters in Bern. Failing this, the population can have public shelters near their place of residence.”
Even when the construction of a shelter is not obligatory, the population pays a contribution intended to maintain civil defense. “Owners who do not build a shelter must pay a replacement contributionspecifies Philippe Boeglin, spokesperson for the OFPP, whom we interviewed. The amounts generated by replacement contributions are paid into a fund, managed by the cantons, and are used to finance the construction of public shelters, as well as the renovation of public and private shelters. Mobilized in the event of armed conflict or nuclear war, the bunkers could also be used in the event of a natural disaster or industrial accident such as Chernobyl.
A bunker for twenty-four inhabitants
Today, Switzerland has more than 370,000 bunkers, offering around 9 million sheltered places, in a country whose population is currently estimated at 9.05 million inhabitants, or one bunker for nearly twenty-four people. They are found everywhere: camouflaged in the mountains, buried under residential areas, attached to administrative buildings or schools…
“Shelters were primarily designed to provide protection in the event of armed conflictobserves Philippe Boeglin. Switzerland having been spared such a conflict, they were used occasionally as emergency accommodation during local and regional events. On a daily basis, however, they are available for other purposes, in particular as cellars, warehouses, DIY and games rooms, association premises or archives, the large shelters can also be used as underground car parks.
“After the start of the war in Ukraine, the interest of the population, the media and political circles in Switzerland and abroad increased significantly.”
Even if they have been converted here and there into museums or cheese cellars, Swiss fallout shelters still require vigilant maintenance, especially since those built in the early 1960s are starting to show their age! “Today it is important to preserve the value of sheltersunderlines Philippe Boeglin. When these are more than forty years old, their components (in particular the ventilation groups and protection filters) and their equipment (berths, dry toilets) must be replaced. The renovations are being financed by the canton’s replacement fund.” In the event of imminent danger, the bunkers must be adapted for their primary functions and made operational within five days, specifies Swiss law.
Precisely, such a threat ran through the Swiss Confederation like a shiver in the spring of 2022, at the first detonations of the Russo-Ukrainian war. “After the start of the war in Ukraine, the interest of the population, the media and political circles in Switzerland, as well as abroad, increased significantly”testifies the spokesperson for the OFPP.
Indeed, Google searches for the keyword “bunker” increased tenfold on Swiss territory from the first week of the Russian invasion. It was enough to rehabilitate an often criticized defensive network, which a reform project had almost buried in 2011. However, it had not crossed the threshold of the Swiss Parliament, the nuclear accident in Fukushima (Japan), which occurred in March that year, having reminded legislators of its importance. In the current geopolitical uncertainty, who would give up their bunker?
