Who was Wilhelm Keitel?
Wilhelm Bodewin Johann Gustav Keitel (22 September 1882 – 16 October 1946) was a German Field Marshal and Chief of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW), the Supreme Command of the German Armed Forces, during the Second World War. Although he held one of the highest military positions in Nazi Germany, Keitel exercised little independent authority and became known for his unwavering loyalty and obedience to Adolf Hitler. Rather than challenging Hitler's increasingly radical decisions, he approved and signed many of the orders that enabled war crimes and crimes against humanity, including directives targeting civilians, Soviet prisoners of war and Jews during the Holocaust.
Following Germany's defeat in 1945, Keitel was tried before the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, convicted on all four counts of the indictment and executed by hanging on 16 October 1946.
Quick Facts
Full name: Wilhelm Bodewin Johann Gustav Keitel
Born: 22 September 1882, Helmscherode, Duchy of Brunswick, German Empire
Died: 16 October 1946 (aged 64), Nuremberg Prison, Germany
Nationality: German
Rank: Generalfeldmarschall (Field Marshal)
Service: Imperial German Army, Reichswehr and Wehrmacht
Commands: Chief of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW), 1938–1945
Known for: Chief of the OKW, signing criminal military orders and standing trial at Nuremberg
Spouse: Lisa Fontaine (married 1909)
Children: Six
Early Life and Military Career
Wilhelm Bodewin Johann Gustav Keitel was born on 22 September 1882 in the village of Helmscherode, near Gandersheim in the Duchy of Brunswick. He was the eldest son of Carl Keitel, a middle-class landowner and his wife Apollonia Vissering. Growing up on the family estate, Keitel developed a lifelong love of hunting, horse riding and farming. His original ambition was to manage the family farm after completing his education at a gymnasium, but when his father decided not to retire, Keitel chose a military career instead. In 1901, he entered the Prussian Army as an officer cadet and joined a field artillery regiment stationed in Wolfenbüttel. His diligence and organisational abilities soon became apparent, leading to his appointment as an adjutant in 1908. On 18 April 1909, he married Lisa Fontaine, the daughter of a prosperous landowner. The marriage was a happy one and produced six children.
During the First World War, Keitel served on the Western Front, where he fought in the battles in Flanders. He was seriously wounded early in the conflict but recovered and returned to duty. Promoted to Hauptmann (Captain), he transferred to the staff of an infantry division in 1915, where he gained valuable experience in planning and administration rather than frontline command.
For his service during the war, Keitel received several decorations, including the Iron Cross Second Class, the Iron Cross First Class, the Knight's Cross of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern with Swords, the Wound Badge in Black and the Hanseatic Cross of Hamburg.
Unlike many German officers who left military service after Germany's defeat, Keitel remained in the drastically reduced Reichswehr established under the Treaty of Versailles. He assisted in organising Freikorps formations operating along Germany's eastern frontier before transferring to the Ministry of the Reichswehr in Berlin in 1924. There he served within the Truppenamt, the organisation that secretly performed the functions of the forbidden German General Staff.
Returning briefly to field service in 1927, Keitel was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and, two years later, returned once more to the War Ministry. As head of the Organisational Department, he became heavily involved in the secret expansion of Germany's armed forces, despite the restrictions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles. His administrative efficiency and reliability earned him the respect of his superiors, although he was never regarded as an outstanding battlefield commander.
During this period, Keitel travelled to the Soviet Union to inspect clandestine German training facilities established under the secret military cooperation between Germany and the Soviet Union. These programmes allowed German officers to develop weapons, aircraft and armoured tactics that were officially prohibited under the peace treaty. In late 1932, Keitel suffered a severe illness that included a heart attack and double pneumonia. Although his recovery was slow, he returned to active duty and, in 1933, became deputy commander of the 3rd Infantry Division. The following year he was appointed commander of the 22nd Infantry Division in Bremen.
By the time Adolf Hitler consolidated power following the Nazi seizure of government, Keitel had established a reputation as an exceptionally efficient administrator, meticulous staff officer and loyal subordinate.
These qualities, rather than exceptional military brilliance or combat leadership, would soon propel him into the highest ranks of the German armed forces and place him at the centre of Hitler's military command structure.
Rise to the Wehrmacht High Command
In 1935, on the recommendation of General Werner von Fritsch, Keitel was promoted to Major General and appointed chief of the Wehrmacht Office (Wehrmachtsamt) within the Reich Ministry of War. This position placed him in charge of coordinating administrative matters between the German Army, Navy and newly created Air Force. Although the role carried considerable responsibility, it remained largely organisational rather than operational. On 1 January 1936, he was promoted to Lieutenant General. Keitel's rise to the highest levels of military command accelerated during the political crisis known as the Blomberg–Fritsch Affair in early 1938. When evidence concerning the background of the wife of Field Marshal Werner von Blomberg reached the War Ministry, Keitel reviewed the police file and suggested that it be passed to Hermann Göring. The scandal led to Blomberg's resignation and provided Hitler with the opportunity to reorganise the entire military leadership.
On 4 February 1938, Hitler abolished the Reich Ministry of War and established the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW), or Supreme Command of the Armed Forces. Hitler himself assumed supreme command of the Wehrmacht and appointed Keitel as Chief of the OKW. Although the appointment gave Keitel cabinet status and effectively made him Germany's senior military administrator, the position did not grant him operational command over the armed forces. Instead, he became responsible for coordinating Hitler's directives and transmitting them to the Army, Navy and Luftwaffe. One of Keitel's first significant actions was recommending General Walther von Brauchitsch as Commander-in-Chief of the Army following the removal of Werner von Fritsch. The appointment strengthened Hitler's personal control over the German military and further weakened the independence of the traditional General Staff.
Keitel was promoted to Colonel General (Generaloberst) in November 1938. A few months later, in April 1939, Hitler awarded him the Golden Party Badge, an unusual honour for a professional army officer and one that reflected the dictator's growing confidence in Keitel's unquestioning loyalty.
Professional Standing and Leadership Style
Although Keitel occupied one of the highest positions within the German armed forces, he was never regarded by most of his fellow officers as a gifted strategist or inspiring military commander. Instead, he was widely viewed as an efficient administrator whose greatest strength lay in organisation and paperwork rather than battlefield leadership. His defining characteristic was his absolute loyalty to Adolf Hitler. Unlike several senior generals who occasionally challenged Hitler's strategic decisions, Keitel almost never questioned the Führer's judgement. He routinely approved directives without objection and frequently acted as Hitler's spokesman during conferences with the military leadership. Over time, this unquestioning obedience earned him the contempt of many professional officers.
Among his colleagues, Keitel acquired the mocking nickname "Lakeitel", a play on his surname and the German word Lakai, meaning "lackey". The nickname reflected the widespread belief that he existed merely to carry out Hitler's wishes rather than provide independent military advice. Another sarcastic nickname, "Nickgeselle", referred to a popular mechanical toy that nodded its head continuously, implying that Keitel simply agreed with everything Hitler proposed.
Several senior commanders later criticised Keitel's conduct. Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt recalled that Hitler valued Keitel not for his military brilliance but for his unquestioning obedience. Field Marshal Ewald von Kleist dismissed him as little more than a loyal follower, while Hermann Göring famously remarked that Keitel possessed "a sergeant's mind inside a field marshal's body." Although these comments were undoubtedly harsh, they reflected the widespread opinion within the German High Command that Keitel lacked the independence expected of Germany's highest-ranking military officer.
Keitel himself later admitted during the Nuremberg Trials that he rarely opposed Hitler. He believed that his military oath of loyalty required absolute obedience, even when he privately questioned certain decisions. Historians generally agree, however, that his repeated willingness to place obedience above professional judgement made him one of the principal enablers of Hitler's increasingly radical policies.
Unlike commanders such as Erich von Manstein, Gerd von Rundstedt or Heinz Guderian, Keitel never directed major field operations himself. His influence stemmed not from tactical command but from his position at the centre of Hitler's military bureaucracy, where his signature transformed Hitler's wishes into official military orders binding upon millions of German soldiers.
The Second World War
When Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, Keitel became one of the six members of the newly created Council of Ministers for the Defence of the Reich, which coordinated Germany's wartime administration. Although operational planning remained largely in the hands of the individual service commands, the OKW increasingly became the channel through which Hitler exercised direct control over military affairs. Following the swift victories in Poland, Denmark, Norway, the Low Countries and France, Keitel's standing with Hitler grew considerably. During the armistice negotiations with France in June 1940, he played an important organisational role and publicly praised Hitler as "the greatest warlord of all time." On 19 July 1940, after the defeat of France, Hitler promoted Keitel to the rank of Generalfeldmarschall (Field Marshal) alongside eleven other senior officers.
Behind the scenes, however, Keitel's influence remained largely administrative. He attended strategic conferences, prepared directives and ensured that Hitler's decisions were implemented throughout the armed forces. His willingness to support virtually every proposal placed before him further strengthened Hitler's increasingly personal control over the German war effort. In the summer of 1940, Keitel participated in the planning conferences for Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. During preparations, General Georg Thomas produced a detailed economic assessment warning that Germany lacked sufficient oil, rubber and raw materials to sustain a prolonged campaign in the East. Rather than forwarding the report unchanged, Keitel rejected its conclusions because he believed Hitler would consider them unacceptable. A revised report presenting a far more optimistic outlook was subsequently prepared.
This willingness to suppress unwelcome information became a recurring feature of Keitel's leadership. Instead of providing Hitler with objective military advice, he increasingly reinforced the dictator's confidence by approving decisions that many professional officers considered unrealistic.
As Germany's military situation deteriorated after 1942, Keitel continued to endorse Hitler's increasingly impractical strategic directives rather than challenge them.
War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity
Although Wilhelm Keitel did not personally command combat formations in the field, he played a central role in transforming Adolf Hitler's ideological objectives into official military policy. As Chief of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW), his signature appeared on many of the criminal directives that authorised murder, collective punishment and the systematic violation of international law. Rather than serving as a moderating influence within the German High Command, Keitel consistently supported Hitler's increasingly radical policies and ensured that they were implemented throughout the Wehrmacht.
The invasion of Poland in September 1939 marked the beginning of this process. Before the campaign even commenced, Hitler had made clear that the conflict would not be fought according to the traditional rules of warfare. The German occupation was accompanied by mass arrests, executions of Polish intellectuals, forced population transfers and widespread atrocities committed by the Einsatzgruppen, SS units and police formations operating behind the advancing army. Keitel was fully informed of these policies and ignored objections raised by officers who questioned their legality.
The German military leadership had long regarded itself as separate from the political activities of the Nazi Party. Under Keitel, however, this distinction steadily disappeared. Increasingly, the Wehrmacht became an active participant in Hitler's ideological war, particularly after preparations began for the invasion of the Soviet Union.
The Barbarossa Decree
On 13 May 1941, only weeks before the invasion of the Soviet Union, Keitel signed the infamous Barbarossa Decree. This order effectively removed legal restraints on German soldiers operating in the East. Crimes committed by Wehrmacht personnel against Soviet civilians were no longer automatically subject to military prosecution, while commanders were instructed to suppress any resistance with extreme brutality.
The decree reflected the Nazi belief that the coming campaign would be a racial and ideological war rather than a conventional military conflict. Entire villages could be destroyed, hostages executed and civilians shot on mere suspicion of resistance. By granting German soldiers virtual immunity from prosecution, the decree contributed directly to countless massacres committed during the occupation of the Soviet Union.
The Commissar Order
Perhaps the most notorious directive associated with Keitel was the Commissar Order (Kommissarbefehl), issued on 6 June 1941. The order instructed German troops to identify and immediately execute captured Soviet political commissars instead of treating them as prisoners of war.
The directive represented a flagrant violation of the Geneva Conventions and the accepted laws of armed conflict. Political commissars, who served within the Soviet Army as political officers, were to be shot immediately after capture without trial or judicial review. Although some German commanders quietly ignored or modified the order, thousands of Soviet commissars were murdered following its implementation.
When military lawyers expressed concerns regarding the legality of these measures and argued that Soviet prisoners should receive protection under international law, Keitel dismissed their objections. He wrote that such arguments reflected an outdated concept of chivalrous warfare and insisted that the campaign against the Soviet Union was fundamentally different because it represented a struggle between opposing ideologies.
Support for the Holocaust
Keitel was fully aware that the invasion of the Soviet Union was accompanied by the systematic murder of Jewish communities. The Einsatzgruppen, supported by units of the Order Police, Waffen-SS and local collaborators, followed closely behind the advancing German armies, carrying out mass shootings of Jewish men, women and children throughout occupied Eastern Europe. Rather than opposing these actions, Keitel repeatedly issued directives that facilitated them. In September 1941, he approved orders describing Jews as the principal carriers of Bolshevism and instructed commanders to employ ruthless measures against both Jewish civilians and suspected political opponents. He further ordered that between fifty and one hundred suspected communists could be executed in retaliation for the death of a single German soldier.
When the SS assumed complete control over Jewish forced labour during 1942 as the Holocaust entered its most systematic phase, Keitel instructed the Wehrmacht to accept any resulting disruption to military operations. He emphasised that the removal of the Jewish population remained a priority that took precedence over logistical inconvenience, thereby demonstrating his continued support for Nazi racial policy.
Although the extermination camps were administered primarily by the SS, the Wehrmacht under Keitel's authority frequently provided logistical assistance, transport, security and administrative cooperation. Modern historians therefore regard Keitel as one of the senior military leaders whose actions helped facilitate the implementation of the Holocaust.
The Night and Fog Decree
On 7 December 1941, Keitel signed the Night and Fog Decree (Nacht und Nebel Erlass), one of the most feared occupation measures introduced by Nazi Germany in Western Europe. The decree authorised the secret arrest and disappearance of civilians suspected of resistance activities in occupied territories including France, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Norway. Under the decree, prisoners were transported secretly to Germany, where many were tried before special courts or handed over to the Gestapo. Families received no information regarding their whereabouts and in many cases the prisoners simply vanished without trace. Hitler believed that uncertainty concerning the fate of arrested resistance members would spread fear throughout the occupied population and discourage further acts of resistance.
Thousands of men and women disappeared under the Night and Fog programme. Many were executed, while others died in prisons or concentration camps after months or years of forced labour, starvation and abuse.
The Commando Order
Another criminal directive personally endorsed by Keitel was the Commando Order of 18 October 1942. Issued following Allied commando raids against occupied Europe, the order instructed German forces to execute captured Allied commandos immediately, even if they were wearing uniform and attempted to surrender.
The order applied regardless of whether the commandos had engaged in combat or possessed intelligence of military value. Numerous British, American and Allied special forces personnel were murdered after capture as a direct consequence of the directive. During the Nuremberg Trials, the Commando Order became one of the clearest examples demonstrating Keitel's personal involvement in authorising war crimes.
The Final Years of the War
As Germany's military situation steadily deteriorated after the defeats at Stalingrad and Kursk, Keitel remained one of Hitler's closest military advisers. In January 1943, he joined Hans Lammers and Martin Bormann on the so-called Committee of Three, an attempt to improve coordination of Germany's increasingly strained wartime economy. The committee achieved little, however, as rival government departments continued to compete for authority and Hitler refused to delegate meaningful decision-making powers. Following the failed assassination attempt against Hitler on 20 July 1944, Keitel played an active role in the purge of the German officer corps. He helped establish the military Court of Honour, which expelled suspected conspirators from the Wehrmacht. This administrative measure transferred officers to the jurisdiction of the People's Court (Volksgerichtshof), where many were sentenced to death by the notorious judge Roland Freisler and subsequently executed.
During the Battle of Berlin in the spring of 1945, Keitel continued to transmit Hitler's increasingly unrealistic orders for counter-offensives that no longer had any chance of success. Despite overwhelming Soviet superiority and the collapse of Germany's military forces, he remained loyal until the very end of the Third Reich. After Hitler's suicide on 30 April 1945, Keitel joined the short-lived Flensburg Government under Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz. Even during these final days, observers noted that Keitel displayed the same unquestioning obedience he had shown throughout Hitler's rule.
On 8 May 1945, acting on behalf of the German High Command, Keitel signed the final German Instrument of Surrender at Karlshorst near Berlin before representatives of the Soviet Union and the Western Allies, formally bringing the war in Europe to an end.
Five days later, on 13 May 1945, he was arrested by American forces and taken into custody to await trial.
The Nuremberg Trial
Following Germany's unconditional surrender in May 1945, Wilhelm Keitel was arrested by American forces and transferred to the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. As the highest-ranking surviving officer of the German armed forces, he became one of the principal defendants in what would become the most significant war crimes trial in history.
Keitel was indicted on all four counts of the indictment:
• Count One: Conspiracy to commit crimes against peace.
• Count Two: Planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression.
• Count Three: War crimes.
• Count Four: Crimes against humanity.
Unlike several other defendants, Keitel could not deny his involvement in many of the criminal orders presented by the prosecution. Throughout the trial, prosecutors introduced numerous original documents bearing his signature, including the Barbarossa Decree, the Commissar Order, the Night and Fog Decree and the Commando Order. These documents demonstrated that Keitel had not merely transmitted Hitler's instructions but had personally approved and authenticated directives that violated international law. During his testimony, Keitel acknowledged that many of the orders he had signed were illegal under the accepted laws of war. Nevertheless, he argued that he had acted under the Führerprinzip, the Nazi principle of absolute obedience to Hitler's authority. He maintained that, as a professional soldier, his oath of loyalty prevented him from refusing Hitler's commands.
Keitel also claimed that resignation would have achieved nothing, arguing that another officer would simply have replaced him and carried out the same orders. While admitting moral responsibility for some decisions, he insisted that he had never personally desired the atrocities committed under Nazi rule. The Tribunal rejected these arguments. The judges ruled that military obedience did not excuse participation in criminal acts, particularly when the accused knowingly issued or endorsed orders that violated international law. The judgment stated that Keitel had repeatedly gone beyond merely transmitting Hitler's wishes and had himself drafted, signed and enforced criminal directives affecting millions of civilians and prisoners of war.
On 1 October 1946, the International Military Tribunal found Wilhelm Keitel guilty on all four counts of the indictment. The judges concluded that his actions had directly contributed to aggressive war, widespread war crimes and crimes against humanity committed throughout occupied Europe.
After the verdict, Keitel requested permission to be executed by firing squad rather than by hanging, arguing that he had served as a professional soldier throughout his life. The Allied authorities rejected the request, deciding that execution by hanging was the appropriate punishment for convicted war criminals.
Execution
In the early hours of 16 October 1946, Wilhelm Keitel was led from his prison cell to the execution chamber inside Nuremberg Prison. Before his execution, he received communion from the prison chaplain and spent his final hours writing farewell letters to his family.
Shortly before mounting the gallows, Keitel delivered his final statement:
"I call on Almighty God to have mercy on the German people. More than two million German soldiers went to their deaths for the Fatherland before me. I now follow my sons. All for Germany."
At approximately 1:24 a.m., Keitel was hanged. Due to an incorrectly calculated drop, his neck was not broken instantly. Instead, he died by strangulation after approximately 24 minutes, making his execution one of the longest and most difficult carried out that night. Following the executions, Keitel's body was photographed as part of the official record before being cremated at the Ostfriedhof Crematorium in Munich. His ashes, together with those of the other executed Nazi leaders, were secretly scattered into the River Isar to prevent the creation of a burial site that could become a place of pilgrimage for Nazi sympathisers.
Before his death, Keitel completed his memoirs, which were later published under the title The Memoirs of Field-Marshal Wilhelm Keitel. In them, he continued to portray himself primarily as a loyal soldier carrying out his duty, a view that has been overwhelmingly rejected by modern historians.
Legacy and Historical Assessment
Wilhelm Keitel remains one of the most controversial figures in the history of the German armed forces. Although he never commanded large armies in the field with the distinction of commanders such as Erich von Manstein, Gerd von Rundstedt or Heinz Guderian, his position as Chief of the OKW placed him at the very centre of Hitler's military command structure. Historians generally agree that Keitel's greatest failing was not military incompetence but his complete inability—or unwillingness—to oppose Adolf Hitler. Time and again, he placed personal loyalty above professional responsibility, transforming Hitler's ideological wishes into official military orders. His signature legitimised directives that authorised mass executions, collective reprisals, the murder of prisoners of war and the persecution of civilians throughout occupied Europe.
His conduct also demonstrated how traditional military values such as discipline, loyalty and obedience could be manipulated by a criminal regime. Rather than acting as a constitutional safeguard against unlawful orders, Keitel became one of the principal instruments through which Hitler exercised control over the Wehrmacht. His repeated approval of illegal directives contributed to the close cooperation between the German armed forces, the SS and the police in implementing Nazi occupation policies and the Holocaust. The judgment at Nuremberg established an important legal precedent. The Tribunal confirmed that senior military commanders bear personal responsibility for criminal orders, even when acting under instructions from political leaders. The defence of "following orders" could not absolve individuals who knowingly participated in crimes against humanity.
Today, Wilhelm Keitel is remembered less as a distinguished Field Marshal than as a symbol of unquestioning obedience. His career serves as a lasting reminder that military professionalism carries not only duties of discipline and loyalty but also a moral obligation to refuse unlawful orders.
His conviction remains one of the clearest examples of individual accountability for war crimes under international law.
Key Dates
22 September 1882: Born in Helmscherode, Duchy of Brunswick.
1901: Entered the Prussian Army as an officer cadet.
18 April 1909: Married Lisa Fontaine.
1914–1918: Served during the First World War on the Western Front.
1935: Appointed Chief of the Wehrmacht Office.
4 February 1938: Appointed Chief of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW).
19 July 1940: Promoted to Generalfeldmarschall (Field Marshal).
13 May 1941: Signed the Barbarossa Decree.
6 June 1941: Signed the Commissar Order.
7 December 1941: Signed the Night and Fog Decree.
18 October 1942: Signed the Commando Order.
20 July 1944: Helped organise the purge following the failed assassination attempt against Hitler.
8 May 1945: Signed Germany's final Instrument of Surrender at Berlin-Karlshorst.
13 May 1945: Arrested by American forces.
20 November 1945: Trial opened before the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg.
1 October 1946: Found guilty on all four counts.
16 October 1946: Executed by hanging at Nuremberg Prison.
