Siegfried Line (#7546)
by Editor on January 22, 2003 at 8:11 PM

The Times (London) January 18, 2003, Saturday

SECTION: Overseas news; 20

HEADLINE: Friendship washes over Siegfried Line

BYLINE: Roger Boyes in Berlin

Germany has started to destroy the giant concrete Siegfried Line, Hitler's defensive wall against an Allied attack, in a gesture of friendship to the French.

Bulldozers and power hammers were at work yesterday smashing a military bunker overlooking the French city of Strasbourg in the first move to destroy the 400-mile frontier fortifications.

The Siegfried Line, known as the Westwall in German, was a warren of 20,000 bunkers, hundreds of underground shelters, trenches and tank barricades. Built between 1936 and 1940 by about 400,000 workers, it was supposed to be Nazi Germany's answer to the French Maginot Line. It starts at Kleve on the Dutch border, runs along the Belgian, Luxembourg and French frontiers and ends just before Basle in Switzerland. There could be no more powerful symbol of French and German partnership than the demolition of the wall. The countries celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the Franco-German Elysee Treaty on Wednesday and the occasion has spurred closer co-operation between the capitals. It will be marked by sending more than 600 German deputies on a day trip to Versailles. A new European initiative is to be announced from Berlin and Paris next week.

Yet the old historical hostility is colouring even next week's extravagantly cheerful commemorations. For example, the German guests will be entertained against the backdrop of paintings depicting Charlemagne's defeat of the Saxon leader Widukind and Napoleon crushing the Saxons and Prussians at the Battle of Jena.

Ripping down bits of the Westwall, which was mocked by British soldiers in the marching song We're Going to Hang Out the Washing on the Siegfried Line, goes some way towards correcting the emotional balance.

There are also practical reasons for the demolition work. The fortifications are deteriorating, walls are crumbling and sudden gaping holes pose a danger to children.

An eight-mile stretch of the wall on the Belgian border has been placed under a preservation order, and some other stretches are being ransacked by museums. The gun pits and underground tunnels are mostly wildlife sanctuaries occupied by bats or rare birds.

Over eight million tonnes of concrete and one million tonnes of steel were used to construct the Siegfried Line. It was a huge effort, compared by some historians with the building of an Egyptian pyramid.

When Germany moved quickly into France in 1940, the line was disarmed -that is, heavy artillery was taken forward to the Atlantic coast. But when the Allies landed in Normandy in 1944, it was activated again. Hitler believed that it would hold off the enemy for at least three years.

To some extent the Allies, believed the Nazi propaganda about the strength of the line. The plan to amass forces and munitions in Arnhem was an attempt to avoid the line, which ended just south of the Dutch town. Nonetheless, in September 1944 the Americans succeeded in crossing the German border and broke through the line bit by bit.

Tens of thousands of soldiers died in the trenches and bunkers, among them many teenagers and old men drafted into Germany's last line of defence.

Yesterday the Siegfried Line was holed for the last time.