* Deutsche Bank's Ackermann falls most in 2008 pay table
* Siemens' Loescher has highest package among DAX CEOs
* Commerzbank boss only CEO in DAX with less than 1 mln eur
FRANKFURT, Sept 3 (Reuters) - The pay checks for the heads of Germany's largest listed companies shrank about 20 percent in 2008 as the economic crisis shook up the ranking table of top executive pay, a study showed on Thursday.
The average total compensation package among the 30 chiefs of benchmark DAX companies slid to 2.28 million euros ($3.3 million) last year, German shareholder rights group DSW said.
Deutsche Bank Chief Executive Josef Ackermann suffered the steepest decline. His 1.4 million euros in 2008 pay ranked 27th among the 30 DAX top executives, down from the No. 1 spot in 2007 with 14 million euros, as his bonus evaporated.
The biggest paycheck last year, 9.84 million euros, went to the CEO of engineering group Siemens, Peter Loescher. Wolfgang Reitzle, at the helm of industrial gases specialist Linde, chalked up 8 million euros, the study found.
DSW Managing Director Ulrich Hocker said he expected top executive compensation to decline further this year, adding that he saw no signs of excessive pay in Germany.
"Remuneration rises when profits rise and it slides when companies are doing worse," Hocker added.
Martin Blessing -- the CEO of Commerzbank, partly nationalised as part of a government banking rescue package -- came in at the bottom of the league table with 629,000 euros, the only DAX CEO with a package worth less than 1 million euros.
DAX executive pay was not a patch on the 2008 recompense for former Porsche CEO Wendelin Wiedeking, estimated at 80 million euros.
His pay was tied to earnings at the sports car maker -- which is not a component of the DAX or any other German stock index -- that were inflated by gains from options on larger Volkswagen (VW).
Wiedeking left Porsche this year after a failed attempt to take over much larger peer VW, getting another 50 million euros in severance pay, half of which he pledged to donate to charity. (Reporting by Frank Siebelt, writing by Ludwig Burger; Editing by Rupert Winchester) ($1=.7000 Euro)