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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 . EARLY LIFE AND CAREER The son of Carl Keitel, a middle-class landowner, he was born in Helmscherode, Brunswick , Germany . 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 in 1909 . 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. He 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 , he was transferred to the Reich Defence Ministry ( Reichswehrministerium ) , serving with the Troop Office or ('' 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 chief of the newly-created Armed Forces Office ('' Wehrmachtamt ''). 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 Reichskriegsministerium (Reich War Ministry) with the Oberkommando Der Wehrmacht , a.k.a. OKW (Supreme Command of the Armed Forces), he assumed the position of Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces. Accordingly, in 1940 he became a " Generalfeldmarschall " (Field Marshal). During World War II, Keitel proved a weak and cautious commander: he advised 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, whose objectives were the assassination of Hitler and the replacement of the current upper hierarchy in the Army, and sat on the following Army Court Of Honour that handed many officers, including Field Marshal Von Witzleben , over to Roland Freisler 's notorious People's Court . AFTER WORLD WAR II On May 9, 1945, Keitel signed Nazi Germany's surrender to the or leadership principle. Instead he was found 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 2 million German soldiers went to their death for the fatherland before me. I follow now my sons - all for Germany." SEE ALSO |