Bidspirit auction | German WWII Westwall Medal -

German WWII Westwall Medal - Schutzwall-Ehrenzeichen - A cast oval medal in a bronze-toned metal, featuring a Party eagle clutching a wreathed swastika above crossed sword and spade, with a bunker or fortification depicted below, all within an oak leaf border. The reverse bears the inscription ”FÜR ARBEIT ZUM SCHUTZE DEUTSCHLANDS” (”For Work in the Protection of Germany”) within the same oak leaf surround. This award, commonly known as the Schutzwall-Ehrenzeichen or Westwall Medal, was instituted in 1939 to recognize workers, engineers, and organizations involved in constructing the Westwall fortification line along Germany's western border. The Schutzwall-Ehrenzeichen was instituted by Hitler's decree in August 1939 to honour those who built the Westwall (known to the Allies as the Siegfried Line), the fortified defensive network facing France along Germany's western frontier. Recipients included construction workers, engineers, Reichsarbeitsdienst and Organisation Todt personnel, as well as some military and Party officials involved in overseeing the project. The crossed sword and spade motif reflected the fusion of military purpose and labour service central to Nazi Germany's mobilisation of civilian manpower for strategic construction in the years immediately preceding the Second World War. It was one of the more widely distributed civil-military awards of the period, reflecting the scale of the Westwall building programme.