But why didn't the Germans invade Sweden?

Answer 1

During the invasion of Scandinavia, Sweden remained neutral; but, because much of their income was generated by exporting iron, they continued to sell it to Nazi Germany. Sweden would not help Finland fight off the Soviet attack, but 8,000 Swedes volunteered for the Finnish army, to bolster the Swedish defense lines. The meager Swedish army nearly doubled overnight, and--by war's end--tripled from that. Civilians built shelters; scanned the skies for enemy aircraft; donated time and money, and made military vehicles and supplies.

Northern Europe, meaning Denmark and Norway, were invaded for important strategic reasons, one of which was that Scandinavia supplied iron ore. This raw material was critical for the success of any modern war effort. The allies (Churchill) had as an objective to stop the flow of iron ore to Germany from everywhere possible, including Scandinavia, as well as to get as many European nations involved in the war one way or the other, and on their side, as possible. England then breached Norwegian neutrality by mining some of its waterways and when Germany reacted, Britain launched its own attempted occupation of Norway, which led to the actual German invasion.

Germany invaded through Denmark whilst England entered Norway from the north. Germany won this theatre, the British had to evacuate, and thereby Germany secured its flow of iron ore as well as cut off the Baltic Sea from the British navy, securing shipping routes from Scandinavia (Norway, Denmark and Sweden, Finland actually is not officially considered part of Scandinavia) to various European ports. Thus Germany had achieved its objective by holding only Norway and Denmark. If a world atlas is studied it can be seen that holding Sweden and Finland as well was not necessary.

Some other perspectives:

• Germany also needed a neutral country as a conduit for goods and foreign currency, and a stage for negotiations and an outlet to the world. Some goods and materials were purchased by neutral 3rd countries from Allied nations (the US for example) and sold to the Germans via Sweden.
• Only nations that posed a threat to Germany, one way or the other, were attacked by the Germans.
• The only strategically valuable things were steel and passage to Norway which were located more strategically and Germany got that without having to invade Sweden.
• Sweden was also afraid of being invaded by the Soviet Union through Finland (a German ally at the time) due to the Finnish winter war. If Sweden was invaded by Germany this would provide an excuse for the Soviet Union to invade Sweden in turn. It was believed in Sweden that the Soviet Union wanted to incorporate Sweden and Finland and not leave after the war was over and that the allies would stand by and let this happen because of the Soviet Union's strategic importance in the war against Japan. So Sweden was desperate to remain neutral and stay out of war and bowed down to the German demands and by doing that there was no reason for Germany to waste troops by invading.

Answer 2

When the war started, Sweden declared themselves neutral. Since the Napoleonic Wars, Sweden had generally done so, and never really got involved in the wars crisscrossing Europe.

Germany did not invade Sweden because they didn't really need to. Sweden, as a neutral country, continued selling stuff to Germany- especially iron ore, which was very important for building weapons like tanks, airplanes, and warships. Without this iron ore, Germany probably could not have continued the war, so it was in Germany's best interest to leave Sweden alone.

Answer 3

Spain was neutral, and far away enough that it was not seen as a military objective crucial to the war; other places had far higher priority such as Britain, north Africa and Russia.

Spain was also at that time under the control of a fascist government that was sympathetic to German war aims.

Answer 4

Ask the Rothschilds! I bet their central bank ownership and estate locations had more to do with the answer then one might think.

Answer 5

Sweden is a very mountainous country making it easy to defend and hard to take. These are the exact reasons why Hitler did not.