The Hochwald site was surveyed by CORF (Commission d'Organisation des Régions Fortifiées), the Maginot Line's design and construction agency, in 1928.

The landscape on the French side of the border is an open farmed plain for 24 kilometres (15 mi) eastwards to the Rhine.

The entrances were served by narrow-gauge 60-centimetre (24 in) railways, that branched from a line paralleling the front and connecting to supply depots.

The rail lines ran directly into the munitions entry of the ouvrage and all the way out to the combat blocks, a distance of nearly 2,000 metres (6,600 ft).

Partially completed galleries run some hundreds of meters into the hill from the rear to the location of the planned combat blocks at the crest of the ridge.

[1][20][21] Entry blocks 8 and 9 serve the main ammunition magazine, utility area (usine) and underground barracks.

These areas were converted and expanded to form the basis of Base Aérienne 901 Drachenbronn[23] in a manner similar to the adaptation of Ouvrage Rochonvillers for the NATO CENTAG headquarters of the 1960s.

[25][26] The nearby Casernement de Drachenbronn provided peacetime above-ground barracks and support services to Hochwald and other positions in the area.

On 8–9 October 1939, Hochwald fired in support of French patrols, revealing deficiencies in gun mounts and ammunition.

New underground galleries were built in the rear (i.e., near the entrance blocks), and were even provided with an internal machine gun port.