Wilhelm Keitel facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Wilhelm Keitel
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Keitel in 1942
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| Chief of the Wehrmacht High Command | |
| In office 4 February 1938 – 13 May 1945 |
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| Preceded by | Werner von Blomberg (as Reich Minister of War) |
| Succeeded by | Alfred Jodl |
| Chief of the Armed Forces Office | |
| In office 1 October 1935 – 4 February 1938 |
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| Preceded by | Walter von Reichenau |
| Succeeded by | Position abolished |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Wilhelm Bodewin Johann Gustav Keitel
22 September 1882 Helmscherode, Duchy of Brunswick, German Empire |
| Died | 16 October 1946 (aged 64) Nuremberg Prison, Nuremberg, Allied-occupied Germany |
| Cause of death | Execution by hanging |
| Spouse |
Lisa Fontaine
(m. 1909) |
| Relatives | Bodewin Keitel (brother) |
| Signature |  |
| Nickname | "Lakeitel" |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  German Empire Weimar Republic Nazi Germany |
| Branch/service |  Imperial German Army Reichsheer German Army |
| Years of service | 1901–1945 |
| Rank | Generalfeldmarschall |
| Commands | Oberkommando der Wehrmacht |
| Battles/wars | World War I
World War II |
| Awards | Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross |
| Criminal conviction | |
| Criminal status | Executed |
| Conviction(s) | Conspiracy to commit crimes against peace Crimes of aggression War crimes Crimes against humanity |
| Trial | Nuremberg trials |
| Criminal penalty | Death |
Wilhelm Bodewin Johann Gustav Keitel ( 22 September 1882 – 16 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. He signed a number of criminal orders and directives that led to numerous war crimes.
Biography
Wilhelm Keitel was born in the village of Helmscherode near Gandersheim in the Duchy of Brunswick, Germany. 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. 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 metres (6 feet 1 inch) 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. 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". He was found guilty on all counts of the indictment: crimes against humanity, crimes against peace, criminal conspiracy, and war crimes. He was sentenced to death and executed by hanging in 1946.
Family
Keitel was the uncle of Katherine "Kitty" Oppenheimer, wife of the physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, the director of the Manhattan Project's Los Alamos Laboratory, where the first atomic bombs were developed.
Legacy
Keitel was frequently depicted in World War II films, such as by Dieter Mann in Downfall (2004). Notably, East German actor Gerd Michael Henneberg repeatedly comprised his role as Keitel in several Soviet-East German co-productions directed by Yuri Ozerov in the 1970s and 1980s, such as Soldiers of Freedom (1977), Battle of Moscow (1985) and Stalingrad (1990).
See also
In Spanish: Wilhelm Keitel para niños
