Westwall medal /Deutsches Schutzwall-Ehrenzeichen

Orginal ww2 West Wall medal with its orginal ribbon


The criteria for receiving the award were:

- Construction workers had to been working on the Siegfried Line for at least 10 weeks.
- Military personnel had to been stationed on the Siegfried Line for at least 3 weeks.
- Construction workers who had been working on the Siegfried Line after 06-06-1944.
- Military personnel who had been stationed on the Siegfried Line after 06-06-1944.

The  Deutsches Schutzwall-Ehrenzeichen better know as the Westwall Medal was instituted by Hitler on August 2nd 1939. This medal was instituted to award the more than 600.000 designers, engineers and builders of the Siegfried Line (Westwall) and other fortifications on Germany’s Western border. This medal could also be awarded to all the military personnel who were stationed on these fortifications before May 1940. The first awarding of the Westwall Medal was on November 23rd 1939. On this date the first Westwall Medal was given by Hitler personally to Dr. Todt. The first group of workers were on November 24th 1939 awarded with the medal and Dr. Todt was the one who handed these medals out. The Westwall Medal could be awarded until January 31st 1941. From this date onwards it was forbidden to award this medal until Hitler reinstituted it on October 10th 1944 due to the successful Allied landings in Normandy. When on January 31st 1941 the awardings were ceased, there were already 622.064 medals awarded. After the successful Allied landings in Normandy and the following allied advance, a group of a 200.000 engineers and builders of the Organisation Todt were rushed in to the Westwall fortifications to renovate and strengthen it. To keep the moral of this workforce high, the Westwall Medal was reinstituted.