The Swiss 'invasions' of Liechtenstein, with sources

“Switzerland accidentally invaded Liechtenstein” turns up on every list of quirky facts, usually with a tale of lost soldiers stumbling across the border at night. I wanted to know what lies underneath, and what lies underneath is better than the anecdote. Not a real invasion, but decades of awkward coexistence with a firing range right on the border, five shells on Malbun and a hill Liechtenstein had to give up.

The firing range next door

South of Balzers, already on Swiss soil, lies the St. Luzisteig pass, with a fortress and, since 1834, a Swiss army firing range. The Historisches Lexikon explains that this caused endless trouble for Balzers. Live-firing exercises set parts of Balzers’ municipal forest, which lies in Graubünden, alight in 1956, 1960 and 1985. There was the noise, and unexploded shells were a hazard for local people.

The Lexikon goes further and says the Swiss army repeatedly violated Liechtenstein’s sovereignty with shots and shellfire across the border, and by crossing it. The best-known episode came in 1968, when five shells landed by mistake on Malbun, the country’s mountain resort. Those, with sources, are the Swiss “invasions”. None of it was an attack, of course. It was the side effect of having one of Switzerland’s training grounds a stone’s throw from a neighbour with no army at all, where the only uniforms on the other side of the line belong to police officers.

There were more serious plans too, though they never left the drawing board. The Lexikon records that in the 1920s and 1930s the Swiss army had plans to occupy Liechtenstein, which sits right in front of Sargans, a weak point in Swiss defences, or at least to bring it under Swiss neutrality. And the Federal Council decided more than once, in the 1930s and during the Second World War, not to defend it if Germany attacked.

How it was sorted out

The two countries negotiated from 1964. In 1985 they set up a joint commission for the St. Luzisteig range, and in 1992 that commission agreed to use non-flammable ammunition and to cap the firing noise heard in Balzers. According to the Lexikon, that settled most of the problems between the two states. It strikes me as very typical of these neighbours, who sort everything out with committees and paperwork.

The hill Liechtenstein had to hand over

The more serious story isn’t the shells but the Ellhorn, a 752-metre spur of the Fläscherberg that belonged to Balzers until 1949. The Swiss army had wanted it since 1934, because it can seal off the approach to the Sargans basin. In 1938 Liechtenstein agreed, but in January 1939 it backed out after German pressure, and Switzerland retaliated by freezing a loan and a labour agreement.

After the war Switzerland asked again and, according to the Lexikon, threatened to end the customs treaty. On 21 November 1948 Balzers residents voted against by 302 to 4 in a non-binding ballot. On 13 December parliament gave way by 10 votes to 5. Under the treaty, in force from 15 August 1949, Liechtenstein handed over 45 hectares and received the same area of more usable land, plus a reduction in a wartime debt. Switzerland built a fort there from 1952. The Lexikon says the Ellhorn still reminds many in Balzers of the difference in size between the two countries.

Real invasions, centuries ago

If you want a Swiss invasion in the strict sense, you have to go back to the Middle Ages. Confederate troops fought men from the area in 1351-1352, in the Old Zurich War and finally in the Swabian War of 1499, and laid waste to villages in Schellenberg and Vaduz in 1445, 1460 and 1499. Vaduz Castle fell in that last year too. I cover it in my history of Liechtenstein.

And the 2007 story?

The version that gets shared most is of a Swiss company that lost its way at night in 2007 and wandered into Liechtenstein. Neither the official websites nor the Historisches Lexikon, written in 2011, mention it. I’m not saying it didn’t happen. I’m saying I can’t back it up, and here I only tell what’s documented. If you like sourced facts like these, there are more on my page of Liechtenstein facts.