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| West Wall Medal Document |
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| West Wall Medal Early and West Wall Medal Late for Comparison Back |
This medal which is more commonly called the West
Wall Medal was originally issued
for the construction of the German Siegfried line in response to the France Marginot Line. Instituted
on the 2nd of August 1939, it was given both
to Civilian Construction workers for ten weeks labour or for 3 weeks service for the military for
fortification service. The first actual award of
this medal took place on the 23rd November 1939 when Adolf Hitler awarded Dr Fritz Todt, as well as other high
ranking officers and party officials this
award. It should be noted that members of the armed forces who had received the Memel or Oct 1938 medal were not
authorised for this award, although
several men did in fact acquire it.
The award was re-instituted again in 1944 on the
10th of October by Hitler as a
reward and also encouragement to both soldier and construction workers who had been working on both
the channel defences and later the Siegfried
line to bolster their defence of Germany as well as morale. Members who held the awards were authorised a bar.
To date, no known example has surfaced.
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| West Wall Medal Early and West Wall Medal Late for Comparison Front |
The award in both cases is the same, only the
metal composition changed. The
award is oval shaped and to the front is a nazi army eagle holding a swastika over a crossed sword and
spade, with a pill box below. On the edges are
a wreath of oak leaves. To the reverse it has again, the oak leaves wreath with
the letters "Fur Arbeit Zum Schutze Deutschlands" (For work on the defence of Germany) to the centre.
The award is made of bronzed/brass firstly
but this gave way to bronzed zinc for the 1944 issues. The award suspends from a brown and white ribbon
that ranked below the Iron Cross, War merit
Cross etc Just behind the occupation awards.
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| Early Packeted West Wall Medal Front |
Most collectors will have the 2nd pattern type in
their collections, but the first
early brass types are well worth hunting down. When awarded, the medal usually came in a paper packet
with the title to the front and the maker's
name to the reverse. One type that turns up more than any is worth noting and that is "CARL POELTATH
SCHROBENHAUSEN". Many people have been concerned
by these, as a large number appeared on the market place in about 1989. All were in near mint and the paper
award packets are mint, but what concerned
some people are the spelling mistakes that have condemned these all as fake. The fault lies in the place name
which does have on some, a spelling mistake,
but the confusion is then compounded by some people's misunderstanding of the German font
used. On some paper packets, the town's name appears
to look like "Schrobenhanfen" whereas it should be "Schrobenhausen". This is correct, but
what has not been taken into account
is firstly the letters are put in by hand and a "u" has been put in upside down making it an "n"
and that the font we are used to, has the "s" in "SchrobenhauSen" appearing
like the letter "f" . This is further confirmed when you turn over the paper packet
and read the front. It is "Deutsches" but appears as "Deutfches".
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| Early Packeted West Wall Medal Back |
The award also came with a citation that took on
many different forms, but all
follow the same lay out and have the man's name and unit typed or written into
it, with a seal or stamp to the bottom of the document..
Price of Award
You should expect to pay about £25.00 for a late
war type in paper packet and
about £45.00 for an early award.
As for copies, probably due to the large number of originals the only ones we have seen
have been cheap lead examples.
