The Siegfried Line: The Construction
I have ordered the immediate construction of fortifications on the western
border of our country. Since the month of May, the most gigantic fortification
construction of all time is underway. I only want to give you a few figures:
In this massive project, 278,000 workers are involved. The majority of the
fortifications will be finished before the winter of 1938. The total number
of bunkers will be 17,000. Behind the defense line, the German population
is ready. I have ordered this colossal effort on the western border to protect
and preserve freedom.
ADOLF HITLER
September 12, 1938
In 1935, the last of the occupying forces from the Treaty of Versailles left the Rhineland. Following years of poverty and foreign occupation, Germany wanted desperately to stand on its own. So, when the foreign troops departed, planning for a western defense system began.
Younger generations and many foreign observers have raised questions about the nature and the purpose of the Siegfried Line, wondering who conceived of it and decided to build it. Even today a veil of secrecy surrounds these questions. (The elderly people in my hometown knew a great deal about it and its purpose, for the Siegfried Line was an epoch of their lives they experienced firsthand, more than 60 years ago.)
Who thought it necessary to fortify Germany’s western border, and was the real reason to protect the borders against French attacks? Did not the French, many years before, build fortresses on their eastern borders to protect themselves against German attacks? This is a paradoxical situation: Each nation, France and Germany, trying to protect itself against the other! By 1936, Hitler had one of the best-equipped armies in the world. Was the Siegfried Line really necessary?
There is a history of building such fortified defenses. Ever since humans have lived in houses, there has been an effort to protect them from enemy attacks. The most obvious approach is to build those facilities as fortresses. Communities have protected themselves by castles, fortresses, walls (like China), and later by whole fortress zones, like the Siegfried Line in Germany and the Maginot Line in France.
At this point it might be useful to review some of the conditions of the Versailles Treaty. Nothing was forbidden to the French, but much was restricted for the Germans:
It is forbidden for Germany to build on the left side of the Rhine River, and along the right side of the Rhine River up to 50 kilometers east of a line along the Rhine River, to keep fortresses or to build new fortresses.
Article 42
It is also forbidden in the same zone as described in article 42 to maintain
barracks and troop assemblies. The same applies for any maneuvers and
for manufacturing military supplies.
Article 43
All fortress systems, fortresses and defense systems and places in the
country on the right side of the Rhine River, up to 50 kilometers east
of the river, have to be destroyed. Any new system is forbidden to be
built.
Article 180
The Siegfried Line, started in 1937, violated all of these restrictions.
Ultimately, the Siegfried Line would form a perimeter about 600 kilometers long that stretched from the town of Loerrach in the south, along the border of Holland in the north, to the Waal River. Based on the topography of the land, a descent from foothills to flatlands, this part of Germany could easily have been conquered by attackers, and Hitler knew this. Because his political goals for the eastern provinces of Germany, namely reacquisition of the land lost to Poland, he did not have enough troops to protect the west; thus he dealt with the vulnerability of the western border by ordering the construction of a great defense system. At the time, critics questioned this decision to build a defensive line rather than use more tanks and airplanes. Hitler responded that the training of pilots and tank commanders would cost more money and require more time than fortifying Germany’s western borders. The final decision to build the Siegfried Line was made in 1936, and by 1937, five hundred bunkers had already been built.