Switzerland: Germany's Only Uninvaded Neighbor

Nine countries border Germany. Eight were invaded/occupied by German forces in WWII (Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria). The ninth—Switzerland—was not.

Why? Armed neutrality: 430,000 mobilized men, Alpine redoubt strategy, every male armed. Economic utility: Swiss banks cleared German gold, franc convertible, trans-Alpine tunnels supplied Italy. Deterrence calculus: invasion cost > benefit. Hitler planned Operation Tannenbaum (1940) but shelved it—Eastern Front bled the Wehrmacht dry.

Switzerland's neutrality dates to 1815 (Congress of Vienna). It's the only neighbor whose border never saw a German jackboot.