Wilhelm Keitel

He was the eldest son of Carl Keitel (1854–1934), a middle-class landowner, and his wife Apollonia Vissering (1855–1888).

At the beginning he wanted to take over his family's estates after completing his education at a gymnasium.

This plan failed as his father did not want to retire.

Wilhelm Bodewin Johann Gustav Keitel (22 September 188216 October 1946) was a German field marshal who held office as chief of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW), the high command of Nazi Germany's armed forces, during World War II.

Instead, he embarked on a military career in 1901, becoming an officer cadet of the Prussian Army.

As a commoner, he did not join the cavalry, but a field artillery regiment in Wolfenbüttel, serving as adjutant from 1908.

On 18 April 1909, Keitel married Lisa Fontaine, a wealthy landowner's daughter at Wülfel near Hanover.

Keitel was 1.85 m tall, later described as a solidly built and square-jawed Prussian.

During World War I, Keitel served on the Western Front and took part in the fighting in Flanders, where he was severely wounded.

After being promoted to captain, Keitel was posted to the staff of an infantry division in 1915.

After the war, Keitel was retained in the newly created Reichswehr of the Weimar Republic and played a part in organizing the paramilitary Freikorps units on the Polish border.

In 1924, Keitel was transferred to the Ministry of the Reichswehr in Berlin, serving with the Truppenamt ('Troop Office'), the post-Versailles disguised German General Staff.

Three years later, he returned to field command.

Now a lieutenant-colonel, Keitel was again assigned to the war ministry in 1929 and was soon promoted to Head of the Organizational Department ("T-2"), a post he held until Adolf Hitler took power in 1933.

Playing a vital role in the German rearmament, he traveled at least once to the Soviet Union to inspect secret Reichswehr training camps.

In the autumn of 1932, he suffered a heart attack and double pneumonia.

Shortly after his recovery, in October 1933, Keitel was appointed as deputy commander of the 3rd Infantry Division; in 1934, he was given command of the 22nd Infantry Division at Bremen.

Keitel's rise to the Wehrmacht high command began with his appointment as the head of the Armed Forces Office at the Reich Ministry of War in 1935.

In 1935, at the recommendation of General Werner von Fritsch, Keitel was promoted to the rank of major general and appointed chief of the Reich Ministry of War's Armed Forces Office (Wehrmachtsamt), which oversaw the army, navy, and air force.

After assuming office, Keitel was promoted to lieutenant general on 1 January 1936.

Having taken command of the Wehrmacht in 1938, Adolf Hitler replaced the ministry with the OKW and Keitel became its chief.

He was reviled among his military colleagues as Hitler's habitual "yes-man".

After the war, Keitel was indicted by the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg as one of the "major war criminals".

Based on evidence that he signed a number of criminal orders and directives that led to numerous war crimes, he was found guilty on all counts of the indictment: crimes against humanity, crimes against peace, criminal conspiracy, and war crimes.

On 21 January 1938, Keitel received evidence revealing that the wife of his superior, War Minister Werner von Blomberg, was a former prostitute.

Upon reviewing this information, Keitel suggested that the dossier be forwarded to Hitler's deputy, Hermann Göring, who used it to bring about Blomberg's resignation.

Hitler took command of the Wehrmacht in 1938 and replaced the war ministry with the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht), with Keitel as its chief.

As a result of his appointment, Keitel assumed the responsibilities of Germany's war minister.

Although not officially appointed a Reichsminister, Keitel was granted cabinet-level rank.

When afterward von Blomberg was asked by Hitler (out of respect for him, after his dismissal in 1938) who he would recommend to replace him he had not suggested anyone, and suggested that Hitler himself should take over the job.

But he said to Hitler about Keitel (who was his son-in-law's father) that "he's just the man who runs my office".

Hitler snapped his fingers and exclaimed "That's exactly the man I'm looking for".

So on 4 February 1938 when Hitler became Commander-in-Chief of the Wehrmacht, Keitel (to the astonishment of the General Staff, including himself) became chief of staff.

Soon after his promotion, Keitel convinced Hitler to appoint Walther von Brauchitsch as Commander-in-Chief of the Army, replacing von Fritsch.

Keitel was promoted to Generaloberst (Colonel General) in November 1938, and in April 1939 he was awarded the Golden Party Badge by Hitler.

Field Marshal Ewald von Kleist labelled Keitel nothing more than a "stupid follower of Hitler" because of his servile "yes man" attitude toward Hitler.

His sycophancy was well known in the army, and he acquired the nickname 'Lakeitel', a pun derived from Lakai ("lackey") and his surname.

Hermann Göring's description of Keitel as having "a sergeant's mind inside a field marshal's body" was a feeling often expressed by his peers.

He was sentenced to death and executed by hanging in 1946.

Wilhelm Keitel was born in the village of Helmscherode near Gandersheim in the Duchy of Brunswick, Germany.