Wilhelm Keitel

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Wilhelm Bodewin Johann Gustav Keitel (September 22, 1882 - October 16, 1946) was a German field marshal (Generalfeldmarschall) and a senior military leader during World War II.

Contents 1 Early life and career 2 OKW and World War II 3 After World War II 4 Trivia 5 See also 6 External links

[edit] Early life and career

Keitel was born in Helmscherode, Brunswick, German Empire, the son of Carl Keitel, a middle-class landowner, and his wife Apollonia Vissering. After completing his education in Göttingen, he embarked on a military career in 1901, becoming a Fahnenjunker (Cadet Officer), joining the 6th Lower-Saxon Field Artillery Regiment. He married Lisa Fontaine, a wealthy landowner's daughter, in 1909. Together they had six children, one of them died in infancy. During World War I Keitel served on the Western front with the Field Artillery Regiment No. 46. In September 1914, during the fighting in Flanders, he was seriously wounded in his right forearm by a shell fragment.

Keitel recovered, and thereafter was posted to the German General Staff in early 1915. After World War I ended, he stayed in the newly created Reichswehr, and played a part in organizing Freikorps frontier guard units on the Polish border. Keitel also served as a divisional general staff officer, and later taught at the Hanover Cavalry School for two years.

In late 1924, Keitel was transferred to the Ministry of Defence (Reichswehrministerium), serving with the Troop Office (Truppenamt), the post-Versailles disguised General Staff. He was soon promoted to the head of the organizational department, a post he retained after the Nazi seizure of power in 1933. In 1935, based on a recommendation by Werner von Fritsch he became Nazi Germany's chief of the newly-created Armed Forces Office (Wehrmachtamt).

[edit] OKW and World War II

In 1937, Keitel received a promotion to general, and in the following year, in the wake of the Blomberg-Fritsch Affair and the replacement of the Ministry of War (Reichskriegsministerium) with the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht), he assumed the position of Chief of the OKW. In 1940, following the conclusion of the French campaign, he was promoted to General Field Marshal(Generalfeldmarschall), along with a number of [{Adolf Hitler]]'s other generals.

During World War II, Keitel proved to be weak and cautious: he advised Hitler against invading France and opposed Operation Barbarossa. Both times he backed down in the face of Hitler and tendered his resignation: the Führer refused to accept it. In 1942 he again stood up to Hitler in defence of the actions of Field Marshal Wilhelm List, whose army was struggling to extricate themselves from inconclusive and bloody fighting in the Caucasus. Keitel's defence of List was his last act of defiance to Hitler, for after that he never again challenged one of Hitler's orders and was referred to by his colleagues as "Lakaitel" ("Lackey-tel" or "Little Lackey"). He signed numerous orders of dubious legality under the laws of war, the most infamous of which being the notorious Commissar Order, and unquestionably allowed Himmler a free hand with his racial controls and ensuing terror in captured Russian territory. Another was the order to have any of the French pilots fighting for the Normandie-Niemen fighter regiment in and on behalf of the USSR to be executed instead of their being treated as prisoners of war. Keitel was also instrumental in foiling the attempted coup of the July 20 Plot in 1944, which attempted to assassinate Hitler. Keitel then sat on the following Army Court of Honour that handed many officers, including Field Marshal Erwin von Witzleben, over to Roland Freisler's notorious People's Court.

In April and May of 1945, during the Battle for Berlin, Keitel urged various German generals to attack the Soviet forces and relieve Berlin. But, this late in the war, neither Gotthard Heinrici (Army Group Vistula), Felix Steiner (11th SS Panzer Army), Walther Wenck (12th Army), nor Theodor Busse (9th Army) commanded forces capable of saving the German capital.

After the death of German dictator Adolf Hitler on 30 April, Keitel was a member of the short-lived Flensburg government.

On May 8, 1945, German President (Reichspräsident) Karl Dönitz authorized Keitel to sign the second instrument of unconditional surrender in Berlin. On the previous day, Alfred Jodl had signed an instrument of unconditional surrender in Rheims, France.

[edit] After World War II

Four days after the surrender, Keitel was arrested. He soon faced the International Military Tribunal, which charged him with a number of offences:

• conspiracy to commit crimes against peace;
• planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression;
• war crimes; and,
• crimes against humanity.

The IMT rejected Keitel's defense that he was following orders in conformity to the Führerprinzip or leadership principle and found him guilty on all charges. To underscore the criminal, rather than military, nature of Keitel's acts the Allies denied his request to be shot by firing squad and hanged him instead. His last words were "I call on God Almighty to have mercy on the German people. More than two million German soldiers went to their death for the fatherland before me. I follow now my sons - all for Germany (Alles fur Deutschland)." Due to untidy hanging, he died after 27-minutes of long painful choking at the end of the rope.

[edit] Trivia

• Keitel was portrayed by actor Dieter Mann in the 2004 film Downfall.

• As a military officer, Keitel was prohibited by law from joining the NSDAP. After Keitel's initial successes on the Russian front, he was given a "Golden" (Honorary) NSDAP membership badge by Adolf Hitler, who was seeking to link military successes to political successes. In 1944, German laws were changed and military officers were encouraged to seek NSDAP membership. Keitel claimed he did so as a formality at the Nuremberg Trials, but never received formal party membership. Keitel was one of only two people to receive honorary party membership status.

• When moving to the United States after World War II, some of Keitel's family changed their last name to Keetle so as to not be associated with his crimes. Many of his descendants still go by this last name.

[edit] See also

• German Instrument of Surrender (8 May 1945) on Wikisource
• War crimes of the Wehrmacht

[edit] External links

• The Memories of Fieldmarshal Keitel, Keitel autobiography

German Field Marshals (Generalfeldmarschall) of World War II (in alphabetical order)
Werner von Blomberg | Fedor von Bock | Walther von Brauchitsch | Ernst Busch | Hermann Göring | Robert Ritter von Greim | Wilhelm Keitel | Albert Kesselring | Ewald von Kleist | Günther von Kluge | Georg von Küchler | Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb | Wilhelm List | Erich von Manstein |Erhard Milch | Walter Model | Friedrich Paulus | Walther von Reichenau | Wolfram von Richthofen | Erwin Rommel | Gerd von Rundstedt | Ferdinand Schörner | Hugo Sperrle | Maximilian von Weichs | Erwin von Witzleben
Honorary: Eduard von Böhm-Ermolli
German Grand Admirals (Großadmiral) of World War II
Erich Raeder | Karl Dönitz