Mitholz or Blausee-Mitholz is a village in

Kandergrund Kandergrund is a municipality in the Frutigen-Niedersimmental administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. History The area may have been lightly inhabited during the Bronze Age, however the earliest documented settlement was a ...

municipality in the canton of

Bern Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

, with 170 inhabitants as of 2020.David Williams
"An entire Swiss village must evacuate due to a World War II ammo dump. The cleanup could take 10 years"
CNN, 28 February 2020."Mitholz: Life in the shadow of an Alpine ticking time bomb"
''Swissinfo'', 30 October 2020. is a station on the

Lötschberg railway line The Lötschberg is an Alpine mountain massif, usually associated with a major, historically important transit axis of the Alps in Switzerland with, at its core, the Lötschen Pass (, Swiss German: ''Lötschepass''). The mountain pass, which culmi ...

. A munitions storage explosion in 1947 destroyed the village and killed nine people. A safety study commissioned in 2018 found that the site still contained munitions and was unsafe, and in 2020 the government announced that the village must be temporarily abandoned in 2030 for a clean-up that is projected to last 10 years.

History

Mitholz was one of six populated places in the Kander Valley to make up the municipality of Kandergrund at its formation in 1850. After the development of the Lötschberg railway, the municipality was split in 1908 with effect in 1909;

Kandersteg Kandersteg is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Frutigen-Niedersimmental (administrative district), Frutigen-Niedersimmental administrative district in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Bern (canton), Bern in Switzerland. ...

became a separate, larger municipality, and Mitholz is now one of three centres of population in Kandergrund. It had the first school in the valley, opened in 1740, and had a post office until 1998."Geschichte"
Gemeinde Kandergrund, retrieved 1 August 2021 . The steep topography of the Kander Valley has caused a series of natural disasters to affect the village. In August 1945, a

landslide Landslides, also known as landslips, rockslips or rockslides, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, mudflows, shallow or deep-seated slope failures and debris flows. Landslides ...

and ensuing flooding killed two people; in winter 1998–99, an

avalanche An avalanche is a rapid flow of snow down a Grade (slope), slope, such as a hill or mountain. Avalanches can be triggered spontaneously, by factors such as increased precipitation or snowpack weakening, or by external means such as humans, othe ...

caused damage; in 1987 and 2011, the village was flooded. The village was also one of the worst affected settlements in the region in

Cyclone Lothar Cyclone Lothar is regarded as the worst European windstorm recorded during the 20th century. Crossing France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany between 25 December and 27 December 1999, Cyclone Lothar's average winds reached up to 115 ...

in December 1999.

1947 munitions explosion

More than 7,000

tonne The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1,000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton in the United States to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the s ...

s of munitions, including

aerial bomb An aerial bomb is a type of Explosive weapon, explosive or Incendiary device, incendiary weapon intended to travel through the Atmosphere of Earth, air on a predictable trajectory. Engineers usually develop such bombs to be dropped from an aircra ...

s, artillery rounds,

land mine A land mine, or landmine, is an explosive weapon often concealed under or camouflaged on the ground, and designed to destroy or disable enemy targets as they pass over or near it. Land mines are divided into two types: anti-tank mines, wh ...

s and

hand grenade A grenade is a small explosive weapon typically thrown by hand (also called hand grenade), but can also refer to a Shell (projectile), shell (explosive projectile) shot from the muzzle of a rifle (as a rifle grenade) or a grenade launcher. A mod ...

s, were stored by the

Swiss Armed Forces The Swiss Armed Forces (; ; ; ; ) are the military and security force of Switzerland, consisting of land and air service branches. Under the country's militia system, regular soldiers constitute a small part of the military and the rest are ...

in a depot inside a mountain overlooking Mitholz. The depot, one of the largest in a system of underground weapons stores built during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

as an expansion of the

National Redoubt A national redoubt or national fortress is an area to which the (remnant) military forces of a nation can be withdrawn if the main battle has been lost or even earlier if defeat is considered inevitable. Typically, a region is chosen with a geogra ...

, consisted of 6 chambers in length. Shortly before midnight on 19 December 1947, an explosion of unknown cause blew off part of the side of the mountain, one of the largest non-nuclear explosions up to that date. Forty buildings in the village, including the station and the school, were destroyed by flying rocks and fire from exploding ordnance; nine people were killed, four of them children, and 20 injured."Mitholz, Switzerland – 20 Dec 1947"
Munitions Safety Information Analysis Center, NATO, retrieved 1 August 2021."Mitholz—A village on top of a powder keg"
Deutsche Welle, 7 January 2021 (video, 5 mins 16 secs).John Miller
"Swiss villagers face 10-year evacuation in $1 billion bomb removal plan"
Reuters, 7 December 2020.Imogen Foulkes
"Mitholz - the tranquil Swiss village facing a time bomb"
BBC News, 31 July 2021. Approximately 20 houses were rebuilt in traditional style by craftsmen from the neighbouring Frutig Valley; many have inscriptions commemorating the disaster. The munitions storage was partly rebuilt and was later used to store

pharmaceuticals Medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal product, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy ( pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the ...

; in 2010 it was proposed as the site of a data centre. In 2018, the

Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport The Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection and Sport (DDPS, , , , ) is one of the seven departments of the Swiss federal government. It is headed by a member of the Swiss Federal Council, the Swiss defence minister. Organisation The ...

announced that approximately half the munitions had not exploded, but remained inside the collapsed depot and under unstable rock, and a commissioned safety study found that there was a risk of another explosion. In February 2020, a further announcement was made that the village must be evacuated by 2030 in order for the Armed Forces to either remove or safely bury the remaining munitions, which is estimated to require ten years. Residents are to be compensated and offered housing to which to relocate."Swiss to evacuate village threatened by vast WWII ammo dump"
AP, 7 December 2020. File:Mitholz ca 1930.jpg, Aerial photograph of Mitholz, c. 1930, before construction of the munitions facility File:Mitholz Uebersicht.jpg, Elevated photograph January 1948 File:Empfangsgebaeude Blausee-Mitholz.jpg, Blausee-Mitholz station File:Mitholz Erkennungsdienst 08.jpg, Wreckage of the station, 1947 File:Mitholz Armeeapotheke.jpg, Swiss Armed Forces medical storage in former munitions dump, 2018

References

External links

* * {{Coords, 46.5273, 7.6746, display=title Villages in the canton of Bern Explosions in 1947

History

1947 munitions explosion

See also

References

External links