The Schneehüenerstock is a mountain in the Glarner Alps, near Andermatt.

If you stand there with your skis at the mountain station and take a closer look, you may notice something: some parts of the reddish-yellow mountain peak are not made of rock at all - but of concrete.

Here the military was at work, as on so many other massifs of their Alps.

But the fact that there is now a cable car for winter sports enthusiasts on this mountain is a curious story.

It began more than 30 years ago with a groundbreaking Swiss referendum.

In 1989, the initiative “for a Switzerland without an army” actually wanted to abolish the federal army.

35.6 percent voted in favor, that is more than a million Swiss people.

With that, the "sacred cow" was slaughtered, as Max Frisch had demanded,

and after that nothing was the same for the army.

It was massively dismantled and lost ground under its feet.

Literally: property was suddenly available.

A lot of land.

That's where an Egyptian comes in, Samih Sawiris, a tourism investor.

“At a reception, the Swiss Ambassador Sawiris asked whether he also wanted to invest in Switzerland.

Sawiris replied that he needed space for it, a lot of space,” says Silvio Schmid.

Schmid has been with the cable car company for over 30 years, and now we stand together in front of the summit of the Schneehüenerstock.

The military withdrew from the area around Andermatt in particular.

The Egyptian got in and Andermatt grew instead of falling asleep.

Luxury hotels like the Chedi Andermatt and a Radisson, apartment buildings, and a golf course were created.

Sawiris also wanted a suitable first-class ski area, and so a huge network was created with the Andermatt-Sedrun ski arena.

Myth Reduit

At that time, from about 2005, when everything seemed possible, it was also about that Schneehüenerstock.

This mountain is about halfway between Andermatt and Sedrun and is 2773 meters high.

He towers like a rocky crown.

In fact, this upper part resembles a piece of Swiss cheese with a lot of holes.

Swiss air traffic control was and is stationed here.

The area around the Gotthard Pass was at the core of the so-called Swiss Réduit, a system of defenses that were blown up and dredged in the Alps, especially around the time of World War II.

After France capitulated in 1940, Switzerland was surrounded by the Axis powers and responded with defensive structures. Up to 600 men found space in the fortifications in the mountains.

Only with the end of the Warsaw Pact in 1995 were numerous facilities dismantled.

The myth of Switzerland bravely defending itself in the event of an attack remained, the exact locations of the Réduit were top secret – but everything was known in the villages and valleys.