ex-Swiss Colonel & P26 member passes away in Ireland

jrspet · #1 21.04.2011, 01:07

A controversial former colonel in Switzerland’s intelligence service has died in Ireland, according to an obituary notice in a Swiss newspaper on Wednesday.

Albert Bachmann had been a communist as a young man, but later became a convinced cold warrior. In 1976 he set up a secret army of about 2,000 men and women whose task was to resist any foreign occupation force.

He owned property in Ireland where he built holiday villas to which the Swiss government could have fled in case of war, and arranged for the gold reserves of the National Bank to be flown out of the country in Swissair planes should it ever become necessary.

When these secret activities came to light in 1979, a scandal erupted. The then defence minister, Georges-André Chevallaz was furious and Bachmann was forcibly retired.

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20min report of July 2008

P26

How does this work?

Wollishofener · #2 21.04.2011, 02:10

What made Mr Chevallaz furious were
- to establish a secret army
- NOT to inform the Bundesrat about his Irish activities
- to misuse public institutions for extreme right-wing propaganda

The Soldatenbuch was well-written but clearly militaristic, but that "Zivilverteidigungsbuch" landed in the "old paper". And Mr VonMoos was a typical old-fashioned and stubborn ColdWar-Warrior, quite the contrary to open-minded FDP Bundesrat Chevallaz (together with Jean-Pascal Delamuraz, also from FDP Waadtland one of the best).

Captain Greybeard · #3 21.04.2011, 10:28

The title of the thread is wrong. Bachmann never was a "P26 Colonel." He was the commander of the Spezialdienste (Special Services), a similar stay-behind organization when the scandal of 1979 broke out. As a consequence, the whole project got totally transformed, which eventually led to the creation of the P-26.

herc82 · #4 21.04.2011, 10:41

	Quote:	Wollishofener
	What made Mr Chevallaz furious were - to establish a secret army - NOT to inform the Bundesrat about his Irish activities - to misuse public institutions for extreme right-wing propaganda The Soldatenbuch was well-written but clearly militaristic, but that "Zivilverteidigungsbuch" landed in the "old paper". And Mr VonMoos was a typical old-fashioned and stubborn ColdWar-Warrior, quite the contrary to open-minded FDP Bundesrat Chevallaz (together with Jean-Pascal Delamuraz, also from FDP Waadtland one of the best).

One should definitely watch Beresina to appreciate this period... that's as close as I can get, since I only experienced the end of the cold war..
Do you know of anybody that still has a copy of the Zivi by any chance? I'd love to have a browse through that...

Wollishofener · #5 21.04.2011, 15:56

	Quote:	herc82
	One should definitely watch Beresina to appreciate this period... that's as close as I can get, since I only experienced the end of the cold war.. Do you know of anybody that still has a copy of the Zivi by any chance? I'd love to have a browse through that...

Sure, HERE :

Zentralbibliothek Zürich
Zähringerplatz 6
8001 Zürich
Tel +41 (0)44 268 31 00
Fax +41 (0)44 268 32 90
zb@zb.uzh.ch

www.zb.unizh.ch

you have to enquire there locally

#6 21.04.2011, 16:11

One lunatic less...

#7 21.04.2011, 17:16

If you understand French, the TSR has 2 documentaries on Bachmann and the P26 viewable online:
http://archives.tsr.ch/dossier-resea.../politique-p26
http://archives.tsr.ch/dossier-resea...tique-bachmann
An I agree, Beresina oder... is a great comedy on the subject. Viewable in VOD on Netflix.