Kennedy's European Experience: West Wall Site Visits

10 April - Jamie and I visited two sites along the famous West Wall or Seigfried Line. This was a defensive belt that Hitler built to prevent any French invasion of Germany. It was basically the counterpart to the French Maginot Line. One difference is that Hitler knew he would one day invade France, the French never had any intentions to invade Germany after WWI. Constructing the West Wall gave Hitler a few things: motivation of the people to protect against a French Invastion. The Germans were still made from the results of WWI. It also gave him a way to employ people after he rose to power. A political truism is - People with jobs love the people that created those jobs - no matter what the job. Some other differences are that while the Maginot Line is not a connected line but a series of fortresses at certain points and all along the French-German border. The West wall was mostly a continual line of dragons teeth, tank trenches, pill boxes, artillery positions, road barricades, bunkers. The fortresses are much smaller than the Maginot Line but just as effective.

We visited the West Wall Museum just south of Pirmesans. It was very well done and preserved. Only part of the fortress is open. The museum has a very good display of vehicles and weapons and how they lived in the fort. We enjoyed it.

Next we drove about 30 minutes north to see some of the dragon teeth. These were ALL along the border. They were built by an organization called Organization Todt with was all civilians with military leadership. After the way, Germany destroyed alot of the pilboxes and pulled up the dragon teeth in the fields and near cities. Only a few places remain in the woods. Across the street is a network of trenches covering the road from franch. This one is about 25 minutes west of our house.