Not all Mitholzer have to leave their village so that the federal government can clear the dangerous ammunition depot. Your properties will be remunerated at market prices. The work should be completed in 2040.
In the village of Mitholz near Kandersteg, 3,500 tons of ammunition from the Swiss army lay buried in the mountain after a catastrophic explosion in December 1947.
It is a legacy from the Second World War, for which the people of Mitholz have to pay dearly around 80 years later. In 1947, an ammunition depot that had been built into the mountain during the war exploded right next to the village. The blast hurled debris and bombs at the village. Part of the rock broke off. Nine people died. After the inferno, 3500 tons of ammunition remained in the mountain: grenades, aerial bombs. The freight of 350 railroad cars. The union left them lying between boulders and rocks. Assessments at the time, according to which the danger was low, were to turn out to be wrong.