Wilhelm Keitel

Lore & Background

Wilhelm Keitel was born in the village of Helmscherode near Gandersheim, the eldest son of Carl Keitel, a middle-class landowner, and his wife Apollonia Vissering. As a youngster his main interests were hunting and riding horses, hobbies he pursued later in life. He wanted to take over his family's estates but his father did not want to retire, so he embarked on a military career in 1901 as an officer cadet of the Prussian Army. He married Lisa Fontaine, a wealthy landowner's daughter, on 18 April 1909. During World War I, Keitel served on the Western Front, fought in Flanders where he was severely wounded, and was promoted to captain before being posted to the staff of an infantry division in 1915. After the war, he was retained in the Reichswehr and played a part in organizing paramilitary Freikorps units on the Polish border. In 1924 he was transferred to the Ministry of the Reichswehr in Berlin, serving with the Truppenamt, and later returned to field command. By 1929 he was a lieutenant-colonel assigned to the war ministry, soon becoming Head of the Organizational Department, a post he held until 1933. He traveled at least once to the Soviet Union to inspect secret Reichswehr training camps. In autumn 1932 he suffered a heart attack and double pneumonia; after recovery, in October 1933, he was appointed deputy commander of the 3rd Infantry Division, and in 1934 he commanded the 22nd Infantry Division at Bremen.

Reader's Guide

Keitel's significance lies in his role as chief of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, where he functioned as Hitler's primary military staff officer and enforcer. He signed criminal orders and directives that led to numerous war crimes, and his servile attitude toward Hitler earned him the nickname 'Lakeitel' and the contempt of his peers. After the war, he was the only senior German commander to be convicted on all four counts at Nuremberg—crimes against humanity, crimes against peace, criminal conspiracy, and war crimes—and was executed. His legacy is that of a high-ranking officer who subordinated military professionalism to Nazi ideology, facilitating the regime's most brutal policies. The International Military Tribunal's verdict cemented his place as a symbol of the dangers of unquestioning obedience in military command structures.

Did You Know?

• Keitel was 1.85 metres (6 feet 1 inch) tall and described as a solidly built, square-jawed Prussian.
• He acquired the nickname 'Lakeitel', a pun derived from Lakai ('lackey') and his surname.
• Hermann Göring described Keitel as having 'a sergeant's mind inside a field marshal's body'.
• Keitel sat on the army 'court of honour' after the failed 20 July 1944 plot.

Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)

"I call on God Almighty to have mercy on the German people. More than two million German soldiers went to their death for the fatherland before me. I follow now my sons - all for Germany." — Wilhelm Keitel "I am a soldier and I worked for the kaiser, under Ebert, Hindenburg, and Hitler, all the same way, for the past 44 years." — Wilhelm Keitel "I believe German soldiers are good and decent, and if they did anything wrong it was because of military necessity." — Wilhelm Keitel "Hitler gave us orders - and we believed in him. Then he commits suicide and leaves us to bear the guilt. He should have remained alive to bear his share." — Wilhelm Keitel