I traveled by car out of Italy into Switzerland and back again without a stamp before Switzerland was part of Schenegen.

Over a thousand in 15 years? This is 65 annual departures from Schengen states without an exit stamp. So - different from my prior impression - your life does not only consist of posting on FT but also of exiting out of the Schengen area and avoiding Schengen exit stamps. And: Referring to the legal situation and to its factual background has nothing to do with "neo-nationlalists paranoid" but with facts.

Strict border controlls between Switzerland and its neighbours ended in the early 70ties. I hardly got checked on ANY European land border (with the exception of the UK sea border). However, Schengen changed one thing: Europe takes its borders to the non-Schengen countries more serious,

These are rarely stamped, at least in my case. I've re-entered the country at least 20 times on my current passport (1 by car, the rest by air) and it's been stamped only 4 times by ICE.

You are assuming things as you wish regardless of what was and was not posted. Your issue as you wish, not mine.

Actually it's exactly as I mentioned in my posts.

From 2002-2007 (and even thereafter) I had a huge number of surface crossings between then non-Schengen Switzerland and various Schengen countries that showed how non-seriously Schengen Europe took at least some of its surface borders with non-Schengen countries. That didn't mean that all of those surface crossings between the Schengen and non-Schengen countries involved no serious border checks, including by the German authorities paranoid about who knows what ... even money.

Why would ICE stamp a US passport unless there's a violation by the passport-bearing person? CBP is far more likely to stamp a US passport on return to the US, but that is something that isn't guaranteed and is more common at some US airports than others. Either way, an absence of a Schengen exit stamp and absence of a US CBP stamp in a legitimately used US passport has about as much chance of causing a substantial problem for entries and exits to the Schengen zone as being impacted by the highly improbable risks played up by neo-nationalists paranoid about who knows what irrational fear.

I can confirm this. We did some criss-crossing between France and Switzerland in 2004 and found that things were exactly as we remembered them from the 1980s (when my husband was working near Geneva) - most of the time we just got waved through.

And the previously-mentioned 65 annual border crossings would indeed not be unusual for someone living or working near a land border with a non-Schengen country.

As I said earlier, the Swiss land border ended to be a real boarder long before Switzerland joined Schengen. As Siwtzerland is surrounded by Schengen countries and secured its few (from a Schengen perspective) international borders (five airports) quite strictly there was no real need of border checks at the land borders. I studied there in the eighties and crossed the border in Geneva quite frequently. Customs showed interest when I used a car with Swiss number plates, nobody showed real interest when I used a car with German number plates.

Today you will not find too many land borders and eg those with Russia, the Ukraine or Turkey are somehow protected in a US style.

As said earlier: Switzerland is an island in the EU with only a few well protected international border crossings. Switzerland is neither Turkey nor the Ukraine nor Russia - so Switzerland might not be the best example when talking about border Schengen protection. And you appear to forget that Switzerland joined Schengen in 2004 but it took until 2008 to fully implement the Schengen rules.

About your first sentence above, it's written in such a way that there's no way to make sure what you mean by it since it can quite easily be read to mean at least two things, each of which would be mutually exclusive of the other.

About your second sentence above, things aren't as they appear to you. That said, continue to imagine me/them as you wish.

In the manner I noted earlier, even after Switzerland signed up for the Schengen arrangement, the land border between Switzerland and the EU Schengen countries did not stop being a real border even as there was a liberalization in enforcement actions along the border. Even then the favorites of the paranoid neo-nationalists in Germany made sure of that, what with their hunt for money/financial instruments amongst other things and their hunt for some persons when going by surface travel. Even in the years between 2004 and 2008.

About your second paragraph above, your comment really makes no sense as it is written because it confuses land borders with officially-sanctioned land border crossings -- there's a tremendous difference between the two.

You may post as you wish, I - however - feel free to understand you post as inappropriate as far as you refer to official German politics as "paranoid neo-nationalists in Germany".

If you want to start a semantic discussion on the definition of "a real border" please to so in a different place. As somebody who lived in both, the south- west of Germany and the north and the west of Switzerland I am pretty well aware of the development of this border and is ended to be a "real border" in my understanding of a "real border" long before Switzerland joined Schengen. Living in Konstanz I crossed the German-Swiss and the Austrian-Swiss border sometimes several times a day without any checks.

However, what you try to do is to compare the border between Schengen and Switzerland in the past with todays land borders (including the crossing points) of Schengen and non-Schengen countries. If you would take the effort to check on a map where these countries are, you would see that your attempt is not only missleading but nothing but a comparisms of apples and oranges.

The thread is about border crossings. My post is about border crossings. So it is you who brings in a new aspect by making a difference between the border itself and a crossing point. This does not make any sense but tries again to confuse. And even more: If the land border as such is well protected than the border crossing point - as an integral part of the land border - is well protected too.

Nothing of my posts in this thread is inappropriate, but you are of course free to imagine as you wish.

Paranoid neo-nationalism in Germany was indeed the basis for the hunt for money/financial instruments at the German-Swiss borders. That official national politics facilitated such is nothing new nor unique.

Well, it was your posts that made a claim about a "real border", so the complaint about discussions about "real border" really do ring hollow along with the direction to become familiar with that which I am intimately familiar.

Toss in a relatively young, changing entity and some time shifting -- think the Schengen area, which is anything but a static entity -- in your posts above, and the ambiguity introduced by your prior posts begs anything from questions to disbelief.

.... and yet the it was your comment about land borders that resulted in my response which, amongst other things, said your reference to "land borders" made no sense as it was written:

So who knows how it can be said that I was bringing in a new aspect when it was not my reference that introduced ambiguity, especially when your reference to "protected" land borders includes the US and an earlier post of yours referred to how Schengen made "Europe" take its borders to the non-Schengen more seriously. More "seriously" than what, who knows. The ambiguity is not lessened when Schengen and Europe are not interchangeable and when the Schengen zone itself is a shape-shifter and yet your posts muddled that all together.

With regard to the OP, what is the risk of a problem arising for a US citizen visitor to Europe on the basis of not having an entry and/or exit stamp from a Schengen country in a US passport when the US citizen's visits involve(d) entering and exiting the Schengen zone? So very insubstantial that trying to draw a parallel with what takes place even at official US border crossings for EU VWP-participating nationals really doesn't do anything but to ratchet up paranoia. Might as well worry about mythical terrorists like the TSA would have it be.

@GUWonder:
You have clearly no clue what you are talking about and your lack of knowledge about Germany, its borders and the Schengen area shows in every sentence.