The West Wall was a military defense system over 600 km long during World War II. It consisted of several thousand bunkers, tunnels, ditches, minefields and tank barriers and stretched along the western border of the then German Empire from Holland to Basel. The West Wall was built between 1936 and 1940 in three defensive lines, probably for propaganda reasons. The French counterpart, the Maginot line, was created between 1930 and 1936.
In the Palatinate, a 10 km long tank barrier ran from the Palatinate Forest near Oberotterbach through the Weißenburg Depression to the Bienwald near Steinfeld. The second line of defense led from Göcklingen via Mörzheim, Impflingen, Insheim, in the direction of Herxheim. The tank barrier was built in the form of hump lines. Reinforced concrete humps, placed in several rows and connected by a foundation, were intended to prevent enemy tanks from entering.
Today, most of the west wall has been demolished, bunkers have been blown up. Relics of the hump lines in the Palatinate can still be found at Steinfeld and Niederotterbach as well as parts of the rear defensive line in Göcklingen and Mörzheim.
