Why Switzerland Has 374,142 Bunkers (and likely more)

there are bunkers everywhere in this country nevertheless their objective Remains The Total Conquest all [Music] I'm currently inside of the largest bunker in all of Switzerland it is massive I mean look at this place 30,000 square m of space which is 300,000 ft for those Imperial people out there like me and I'm hanging out with Eric Who currently owns the bunker this is where the crew uh was taking the showers showering 8 5 me of rock Calia yeah it's got to be one of the deepest showers in the world he's been showing me giant cannons

and the sleeping quarters and the hospital and the giant generators that have provided electricity for this place from the outside this thing does not look big at all wow look at that that is amazing a reminder that every time you see a little door in the Forest that goes into a bunker it's probably a massive network of tunnels 2 m of concrete here at the entrance you go inside of this door and you were L into a Labyrinth of tunnels and weaponry 8 km of walkways 8 km oh and with the most gnarly doors you've

ever seen in your life they're quadruple fortified with huge slabs of concrete this is like 2 m of concrete it sit behind there with a rifle and be able to protect the entrances wow no one is getting into this bunker anytime [Music] soon I went to Switzerland to hunt for bunkers fortresses drilled impossibly deep into mountains and cliffs and Villages hidden from view but packing deadly power wow I've seen so many bunkers you don't have to look super hard to find them they're everywhere but there's a bunker right here look at this this is not

a rock this is a door these little doors in the middle of the forest so unassuming so benign but boy if you knew what was inside let's be clear this isn't normal most countries don't bore into mountains as their defense strategy but Switzerland isn't like other countries when you live in Switzerland you never really have a sense of threat we're Switzerland we're we're neutral right and nothing going to happen to us so instead of of forming alliances and sending troops they dug and the results are nearly 10,000 of these scattered all throughout the country and

that is what I've been searching for okay okay okay where are you my bunkers where are you my bunkers ah I see something down there that is not natural erosion on this Cliff I keep looking for more and more and I'm realizing there are too many for me to fly to like there are dozens up there this Cliff is just riddled with little Windows totally primed in prep to just light up this entire Valley if there was an invading Army from the north oh and it's not just the mountains I also discovered hundreds of thousands

of bunkers dug under Swiss homes a further expression of the Swiss habit of digging to remain neutral the bunkers are at the center of a discussion that is heating up as the world becomes dangerous again so Switzerland is once again debating what these bunkers mean to them and what it means to be safe secure and neutral in a changing world [Music] okay wait before we continue this story I need to tell you about today's sponsor as we look at the beautiful Swiss Countryside today's sponsor is nordvpn which is a longtime supporter of this Channel and

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dream come true okay I'm going to get back to the road I'm on top of a mountain overlooking a stunning view but I'm looking for a bunker up here it's on the wall of this cliff I think I need to fly the Drone to find it but it's raining that's a problem the fog's rolling and I got to be quick okay up on the side of this Cliff ah I know there's a bunker nearby oh God [Music] Jesus come on okay that was too close all right I think this is my takeoff point oh yeah

I see bunkers I see bunkers oh boy just blending into the side of this mountain oh my God look at [Music] this I mean just looking at these bunkers you start to realize how incred ibly ambitious of a feat this is to drill into the side of a cliff and decide to build an entire network of tunnels that are connected and well armed and strategically placed so you can hit the targets you want to hit oh look there's another one oh my God look at this that is just at the base of this Cliff oh

my goodness and it and it's hidden the only reason I can see it is because I am above it but if you're looking at it straight on you don't see it it Blends in perfectly look at that there's one behind all of these little facades they're just guns that are hiding in the wall of this [Music] [Music] Cliff okay on to the next bunker [Applause] [Music] by the 1800s the Swiss were really good at digging into mountains building cable cars trains they just they got really good and that prowess for digging became incredibly useful in

the 1940s when their situation looked like this surrounded by fascist regimes that are quickly taking over Europe very effectively these two allies Italy and Germany with Switzerland kind of sandwiched right in the middle neutral Switzerland wanted to stay out of the war so they did whatever it took but one of the major things they did when they wanted to stay neutral was they started [Music] digging they turned their mountains into a literal giant Fortress Yes you heard me right they turned their mountains into a fortress or I guess technically if you're a military nerd a

redout redout just means a basically an impenetrable Fortress that is dug into the ground but readouts usually look like this one Fortress Switzerland wanted to turn their entire enre Alpine region which is like a huge part of their country into a giant readout I'm going to explain to you the strategy in just a second like what the thinking was here because it's a little paradoxical and weird and war is weird but yeah the point is here that they started digging and digging and started creating what one historian has called the biggest Fortress in Europe [Music]

I'm at the base of the Swiss Alps right now and I'm in a village that is very Switzerland it's got a lot of grass and cows and barns but a few of these barns like this one behind me have a little secret inside that look light when I open it wow this gun is massive has a range of 21 km and this is just one of four B bunkers that are all connected to each other in this Village they're going down here so so now we're in the tunnels oh my gosh wow so we're just

walking under the Green Grass and the cows right [Music] now oh my goodness the grenades this 10.5 wow CM grenades W you have to use this uh shell for uh the explosion scks here and the whole thing looks like that oh it's like a giant bullet yeah first the grenade in and then the the Shelf in shows to the people that they have to be quiet if they to to to to uh to protect all our army Secrets normal people and the soldiers say h Qui all all top secret Switzerland turning their country into a

giant Fortress was basically made possible because of these giant natural walls that they already have if you're an invading Army you can't get a bunch of men over these mountains but these walls had gates in them those gates are called mountain passes and when you're not in Wartime mountain passes are actually really good do you see that bridge behind me that bridge has been used for a long time to let people flow throughout this pass but if you're Switzerland in 1942 these gateways through the Alps that have been used for trade are now a liability

they're now a Gateway for invading armies to come take over your country so this is where they focus their attention all these choke points all of these gateways to their mountains the idea was if the Italians start coming from that way or the Germans start coming from that way they can sit in their bunkers and blow the Smither out of anyone coming up this P because again it's a choke point no one can go anywhere else you can't go over the mountains you have to go through this pass all right I'm down from the mountains

for a little bit and it's because I got invited to hang out with this guy he's a retired Swiss historian who's freaking obsessed with maps of Switzerland I've never felt so seen in my life I'm a artillery Gunner I did my basic training in a fortress and then we went here just for training syc in the prealps he's showing me with this amazing 3D relief map what this Fortress actually looked like here in these high mountains were several very very important fortresses some here there were old ones and some Modern new ones here here and

even even here here is there are bankers and there is toon do you understand yes I saw the Toblerone on the toone there is a last toone and also here is one when France was defeated in the summer 1940 and Switzerland was surrounded by the axis this was a let's say an emergency solution H this was the [Music] [Laughter] redou okay so I hike up to this Swiss House in the middle of the pass looks like just a normal Swiss house is beautiful but you look closely and you see something these windows aren't real windows

they're painted on this thing is actually solid concrete this is not a chalet these are not like barn doors oh wait are they going to let me do this oh my God oh my God look at this those are just little gun holes put your gun through that thing and you can shoot wow look at that this house is not just a house with some gun holes in it it's actually a network of tunnels hey check this out I found a fake rock with a gun in it I was looking at this rock and it

looked a little weird like a little off up close it looks like a like a real Rock it's not look under yep oh yeah boom I see your secrets I've looked at enough bunkers to know what the Playbook is hide something either in a village or in a mountain M put a huge network of tunnels under it and just point at the pass and get ready to fire in case there's an invasion but wait a minute let's examine the logic here yeah it's really cool to have mountains full of really protective bunkers really cool but

most people in Switzerland do not live in the mountains most people live up here on this flat plateau and in the early 1940s they were sitting ducks the point here was was not to protect the people directly but rather to signal to Hitler and musolini that if they wanted to connect their two empires they would have to go through the Alps and that that would be incredibly costly and basically impossible it's like using defense as the deterrent oh and it worked the Nazis had a plan all fleshed out to invade Switzerland but they never did

it and yes that is not just because of these bunkers it is because Switzerland was letting the Nazis store money and stolen stuff in their Banks trading with them Etc the bunkers were a part of the deterrent strategy but the Swifts really pandered to the Nazis as another form of staying neutral something they hear a lot about even you know 70 years later I'm at a dam and if my Intel is right that big giant mountain behind me is actually a bunker [Music] and I don't see anything wait a minute yes I do what is

that what is that I see you big boy you are a very well-hidden gun wow that thing Blends in very nicely with that as their Fortress like they can't no one can fire back another hidden bunker another successful drone flight nice job drone let's get out of here on to the next one I hear there's a tunnel up up there at the top of that mountain that foggy foggy Wet Mountain 3 and 1 12 km I can do this let's go by the way big thanks to the subscriber who recommended this bunker to me I

put a call out to ask Swiss people what bunkers I should go hunting for and this is one of [Music] [Music] them so yeah Hitler never invaded Switzerland stayed neutral in the war but eventually the Swiss government was like why are we paying for a bunch of bunkers that we designed for Hitler so they decided to decommission them a lot of them are totally abandoned but then you have private buyers people who have bought them to turn them into whatever they want a lot of these are museums or are owned by like military organizations that

want to preserve the history but some people get really creative with these bunkers like people are growing mushrooms and fermenting cheese in them or perhaps my favorite use the place I slept last night this is my hotel tonight I booked this hotel because I'm making a story about bunkers and so I was like I have to stay in the bunker Hotel I had no idea it was going to be this this is a full-blown deep in the mountain bunker there's dripping water everywhere original like ladders this place is nuts okay well I guess I'm going

to go get dinner in this bunker there's like a restaurant in it and going there [Music] now what is [Music] happening Switzerland is one of the most beautiful countries in the world this small country surrounded by powerful Nations has been able to remain neutral for the past 150 years 150 years and I'm back in the city and I need to tell you the next part of the story because this is where it becomes relevant to today the Swiss people have always been ready to protect their country after the bunker digging strategy worked in World War

II to keep Switzerland neutral they kind of latched on to the idea digging bunkers worked and they weren't going to stop doing it but the Nazi threat went away and was replaced with a new threat one that would not be deterred by turning your mountains into a giant [Music] Fortress that signal means to stop whatever you are doing and get to the nearest safe place fast it is called a cold war because Armed Forces although uses a threat are rarely Unleashed while the rest of the world was busy making alliances and arming themselves The Swiss

turned to their good old strategy of digging but instead of focusing on the mountains they turned to the City I've been hanging out with Robin a Swiss journalist who's been showing me around the non-mountain version of Swiss bunkers so this is like a normal basement uh usually in a Swiss Swiss house and then behind here you mostly have this thick door it's really nothing special it's just a regular seller what we do as Swiss people we store you know golf clubs we we we store skis fine but of course you know with a special window

with a special filter so we close this oh my gosh yep like this yep wow and then like this it's got to be funny that like American comes to town and is like look at these bunkers and you're just like no Johnny it's just a seller it's a seller like there's nothing special I'm like but the door is so thick so you're Switzerland in the 1950s your big alp Fortress digging bunkers thing worked and you're like let's make everyone have a bunker in their house so that we can be protected against nuclear apocalypse okay cool

idea in theory in practice incredibly impractical and very expensive so they did what they do for just about everything in Switzerland they put it to a vote and so in the' 60s they decreed bunkers as a right they actually lined out EX exactly how to build bunkers they required everyone to build them either retroactively or in their new buildings and the Swiss government would pay like 70% of the cost for these bunkers the people would be protected using the same strategy that they've always used digging holes so I went to the factory of a company

that makes bunkers the beds and the dry toilets and the air ventilation feel like I'm wandering through the Ikea for bomb shelters and perhaps my favorite these giant doors oh my God these giant doors I fallen in love with these doors I don't know why they're just large they're really fun to like push and pull and they're just kind of cartoonish because they're so freaking thick oh my God look at that door oh my God look at this thing oh yeah wow it's nothing this is nothing special no no oh and they always have like

this yellow wrench that I've like become very attached to like the yellow wrench oh you see a yellow wrench and like there's a bunker it's like safety or something I don't know can I buy one of these as a souvenir I've wanted one forever oh oh my goodness I have a yellow wrench I've always wanted one thank you the bunker industry has been slowing down since the end of the Cold War for obvious reasons and it's no longer required by the building code for new houses to have a bunker but unfortunately the Swiss bunker is

now getting a new wave of attention [Music] as the assault closes in on Kev two and a half million civilians are suddenly on the front line Putin's Invasion over Ukraine is changing everything the fear and the risk of having to use a bunker like this is increasing it's crazy I mean when the war started I got phone calls and emails daily interesting mainly from Germans 90% of Germans who would call in Switzerland we have 11 million more than we have people underground nuclear shelters in Germany there's zero so I got calls daily from people from

Germany can I rent a room here [Music] now from people are thinking about their bunkers again the government is inspecting them making sure they have enough I'm in a giant neighborhood bunker that is for anyone on this neighborhood block to come to in case of an emergency it's fully decked out as expected and it even has a full-blown operating room and a room for dead bodies like that's what that is back there Putin's invasion of Ukraine changed everything for a lot of places in the world but here in Switzerland it didn't only change how people

think about bunkers and physical safety but it also kicked off a debate about the complex topic of Swiss neutrality the Swiss government says it is adopting the EU sanctions package on Russia that's a huge move this is Switzerland who may I remind you did not take aside when it came to Hitler Swiss president ignasio CI said extraordinary times called for Extraordinary Measures joining in on sanctions for a lot of people is a massive violation of the thing that has kept them neutral and peaceful for like 200 years this several parties saying well you know we

should be more flexible more traditional parties saying well you know neutrality means not doing anything not joining any party not helping anything but rather you know offer I don't don't know how you say now we took over the sanctions from the EU which basically makes us a war party I don't like it I don't think it's right if from a country that isn't obsessively neutral you're kind of like dude you got to take a stance but here they think differently about the right side and the cost of choosing a side in conflict or more importantly

the benefit of not choosing a side I think the Swiss are the people themselves want neutrality but we never know I mean you know the majority rules you know it's [Music] democracy okay okay well that that's it that is my journey I have to say this story left a bit of an impression on me I came here thinking I was going to go hiking around and stumble upon some abandoned bunkers in the forest but as I dug into this I found myself understanding Switzerland in a new way this place where the people didn't colonize other

countries but stayed here digging in their mountains so obsessively to defend their ideas about neutrality a neutrality that is finding new meaning in a changing World thanks for [Music] [Music] watching hey so I filmed so much more than was put into this video boy the work has just begun I'm the Drone it's kind of scaring me right now it's old it's kind of broken it's not as good and I used to hear a lot about the American who this is what it takes to get a bunker oh okay I got to go find that drone

like it's it's almost a travesty so much so that I'm finally done not doing behind the scenes I'm going to start putting a bunch of BTS up on patreon patreon is a place that I turn to for support in a world where I'm trying to do deeper more factually correct journalism that that is expensive and timec consuming so over on patreon I'm going to start to publish behindth scene Vlogs or show you how all this stuff is made I'm also going to publish a full version of this tour that I did through Eric's bunker it's

way longer and way cooler than like the 2 seconds I was able to put in this video and going forward I will be doing behind the scenes stuff from the studio and from my other travels so that you can see how this is made you've been asking for it for a long time I've been resisting for some reason I'm done resisting go be become a patron and help support independent journalism if you want to support in other ways there's Luts and presets that are in the description and thank you Switzerland for another amazing trip I'll

see you soon [Music]