Wilhelm Keitel

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Wilhelm Keitel bigraphy, stories - German general

Wilhelm Keitel : biography

22 September 1882 – 16 October 1946

Wilhelm Bodewin Johann Gustav Keitel (22 September 1882 – 16 October 1946) was a German field marshal (Generalfeldmarschall). As head of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (Supreme Command of the Armed Forces) and de facto war minister under Adolf Hitler, he was one of Germany’s most senior military leaders during World War II. At the Allied court at Nuremberg he was tried, sentenced to death and hanged as a war criminal.

Service summary

Dates of rank

  • Fähnrich – 14 October 1901
  • Leutnant – 18 August 1902
  • Oberleutnant – 18 August 1910
  • Hauptmann – 8 August 1914
  • Major – 1 June 1923
  • Oberstleutnant – 1 February 1929
  • Oberst – 1 October 1931
  • Generalmajor – 1 April 1934
  • Generalleutnant – 1 January 1936
  • General der Artillerie – 1 August 1937
  • Generaloberst – 1 November 1938
  • Generalfeldmarschall – 19 July 1940

Awards and decorations

  • Knight’s Cross
  • Wound Badge
  • Prussian Iron Cross, 1st Class (1914) with 1939 Bar
  • Prussian Iron Cross, 2nd Class (1914) with 1939 Bar
  • Prussian Royal Hohenzollern House Order, Knight’s Cross with Swords
  • Brunswick War Merit Cross, 1st Class
  • Brunswick War Merit Cross, 2nd Class with “Bewährung” (Reliability) Clasp
  • Saxe-Ernestine Ducal House Order, Knight 2nd Class with Swords
  • Hesse General Honor Decoration, "for Bravery"
  • Oldenburg Friedrich August Cross, 1st Class
  • Oldenburg Friedrich August Cross, 2nd Class with "Vor Dem Feinde" (In the Face of the Enemy) Clasp
  • Hamburg Hanseatic Cross
  • Bremen Hanseatic Cross
  • Cross of Honor for Combatants 1914–1918
  • Brunswick Ducal Order of Henry the Lion, 4th Class
  • Armed Forces Long Service Award, 1st Class (25-year Service Cross)
  • Armed Forces Long Service Award, 3rd Class (12-year Service Medal)
  • Austrian Military Merit Cross, 3rd Class with War Decoration
  • Commemorative Medal of 13 March 1938
  • Commemorative Medal of 1 October 1938 with Castle Prague Bar
  • Commemorative Medal for the Return of the Memel District

Legacy

Wilhelm Keitel wrote his memoirs in the six weeks before he was hanged; they have been published later in few editions, for example "The Memoirs of Field-Marshal Wilhelm Keitel: Chief of the German High Command, 1938–1945" edited by Walter Görlitz, ISBN 978-0-8154-1072-0.

When moving to the United States and Australia after World War II, some of Keitel’s family changed their surname to Kihtel, Keetle, Kaidel, Keidel, Keidle, and Feitel so as to not be associated with his legacy.

Trial and execution

Four days after the surrender, Keitel was arrested along with the rest of the Flensburg government. He soon faced the International Military Tribunal (IMT), 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.

Keitel testified that he knew many of Hitler’s orders were illegal (for instance, he described the Night and Fog Decree as "the worst of all" the orders he’d been given) but claimed he was merely following orders in conformity to "the leader principle" (Führerprinzip). Before the court he openly admitted his guilt in an "awful war":http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpsBg8H5_24

“I made mistakes and was not able to stop what should have been stopped. That, is my guilt!” He then went on to wish the Germans hope and a new future in the community of nations.

The IMT rejected this defence and convicted him on all charges. Because of his signature on orders which called for soldiers and political prisoners to be killed or disappeared, he was sentenced to death. To underscore the criminal rather than military nature of Keitel’s acts, the Allies denied his request to be shot by firing squad. Instead, he was executed by hanging.. By Donald E. Wilkes, Jr., Professor of Law, University of Georgia School of Law. Keitel’s last words were: