André Maginot André Maginot ( ; 17 February 1877 – 7 January 1932 ) was a French civil servant , soldier , and Member of Parliament . He is best known for his advocacy for the string of forts that would be known as the Maginot Line . Early years , to World War I . Maginot was born in Paris , but spent a part of his youth in Alsace - Lorraine , the region where later on the line of fortifications that he advocated would be constructed . After taking the civil service exam , in 1897 Maginot began his career in the French bureaucracy , where he would serve for the rest of his life . He worked as the assistant of the Governor - General in Algeria until 1910 , when he resigned and began his political career . He was elected to the Chamber of Deputies that year and served as Under - Secretary of State for War just prior to the outbreak of World War I in 1914 . When the war began , Maginot enlisted in the army and was posted along the Lorraine front . In November 1914 , Maginot ( by now promoted to sergeant for his " coolness and courage " ) was wounded in the leg near Verdun ( he would walk with a limp for the rest of his life ) . For extreme valor , he was awarded the Medaille Militaire , France ' s highest military award . He was also a fencer . Development of the " Maginot Line " . After World War I , Maginot returned to the Chamber of Deputies and served efficiently in a number of government posts , including Minister of Overseas France ( 20 March 1917 – 12 September 1917 , 11 November 1928 – 3 November 1929 ) , Minister of Pensions starting in 1920 and then Minister of War ( 1922 – 1924 , 1929 – 1930 , 1931 – 1932 ) . He expressed concern that the Treaty of Versailles did not leave France with sufficient security . He continually pushed for more funds for defense and grew more distrustful of Germany during a period when few in France wanted to think about the possibility of another war . Maginot came to advocate building a series of defensive fortifications along France ' s border with Germany that would include a combination of field positions and permanent concrete forts . He was no doubt influenced in this decision by his observations of successful fortifications employed at Verdun in World War I . He was also probably influenced by the destruction of his home in Revigny - sur - Ornain , which made him determined to prevent Lorraine from ever being invaded again . In 1926 Maginot was successful in getting the government to allocate money to build several experimental sections of the defensive line . But it was 1929 that would be the pivotal year for the fixed defenses that would come to be known as the Maginot Line . During the debate that year on the 1930 budget , André Maginot lobbied very heavily for the money needed to construct the enormous line of fortifications . He was finally able to persuade Parliament to allocate 3 . 3 billion francs for the project ( the upper house voted 274 to 26 in favor of the project a few days later ) . Work on the project progressed rapidly . Maginot visited a work site in October 1930 and expressed satisfaction with the work . He was especially pleased with the work in Lorraine , site of his family ' s home and where he spent his childhood , and fought for more funding for construction in that area . Though Maginot was the main proponent for the project , most of the actual designs for the Maginot line were the work of Paul Painlevé , Maginot ' s successor as Minister of War . Death . André Maginot never saw the line completed ; he became ill in December 1931 and died in Paris on 7 January 1932 of typhoid fever . He was mourned throughout France and it was only after his death that the line of defenses which he advocated came to bear his name . However , in the end the line was ineffectual for its intended purpose . In World War II , Germany was able to circumvent the line by passing its Panzers through hills and marshlands which had been impenetrable to tanks when Maginot made his recommendations . A monument in memory of André Maginot was dedicated near Verdun in September 1966 . Quote . We could hardly dream of building a kind of Great Wall of France , which would in any case be far too costly . Instead we have foreseen powerful but flexible means of organizing defense , based on the dual principle of taking full advantage of the terrain and establishing a continuous line of fire everywhere .