Wilhelm Keitel

Wilhelm Keitel (1882-1946), German field marshal, born in Helmscheroda, near Brunswick. He entered the army in 1901 and served as a captain in World War I. Following the war he remained in the Reichswehr, rising to the rank of colonel in 1931 and major general three years later.

A staunch supporter of Adolf Hitler, Keitel was made chief of the administrative department in the ministry of war in 1935; in 1938 he was put in supreme command of the combined armed forces of Germany. He was made a field marshal in 1940, and in 1941, during World War II, he commanded the German forces on the Soviet front. Four years later, in May 1945, he signed the terms of military surrender of the German Reich to the Allies. Keitel was arrested that same year to face charges at the war-crimes trial in Nürnberg; he was found guilty of conspiracy to wage aggressive warfare and of crimes against humanity. He was hanged in 1946.