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Praeger, 1997.JODL, ALFRED
Jodl, Alfred
(May 10, 1890–October 16, 1946)
German Staff Officer
T
he highly efficient Jodl was one of
Adolf Hitler’s most trusted advisers
during World War II and nominal head
of the general staff. He was thus partly re-
sponsible for the strategies that led to Ger-
many’s defeat. Despite disasters on every
front, Jodl remained a slave to Hitler’s manic
persona to the bitter end.
Alfred Jodl was born in Würzburg, Bavaria,
on May 10, 1890, into a family better known
for producing lawyers, philosophers, and
priests than soldiers. He was educated at Mu-
nich but, undistinguished as a student, em-
barked on a military career in 1910. During
World War I, Jodl served as an artillery officer
along the Western Front and was wounded in
action. After the war he seriously considered
studying medicine but was thwarted by
mediocre grades. He therefore opted to re-
main in the Germany army, now reduced to
only 100,000 men due to peace-treaty provi-
sions. But Jodl was one of a handful of prom-
ising young officers selected to pass through
the general staff course, and by 1923 he was a
staff officer at Munich. That same year his
destiny took a fateful turn when he encoun-
tered Adolf Hitler—and became utterly en-
thralled by him. Curiously, Jodl remained
aloof toward Nazi ideology, but he remained
convinced that only Hitler’s genius could res-
cue Germany from its disgrace.
By dint of good performance, Jodl was
eventually appointed to the operations sec-
tion of the Wehrmacht. This also made him a
member of the secret German general staff,
which had been outlawed by the Treaty of
Versailles. In 1935, he rose to became chief of
the national defense section in the Oberkom-
mando der Wehrmacht (OKW, the Wehrmacht
High Command) as a major general and func-
tioned under Gen. Wilhelm Keitel. Three
years later, Jodl participated in the Anschluss,
the forced annexation of Austria and western
Czechoslovakia to Germany, commanding an
artillery detachment. However, disliking field
service, he resumed his activities with OKW.
His fellow officers regarded him as talented, if
overtly ambitious, but Hitler valued his com-
pany and advice. Consequently, in 1939 Jodl
rose to chief of the army’s prestigious Opera-
tions Branch, a post he occupied for the next
six years. This rendered him Hitler’s most
trusted and important military adviser
throughout World War II.
During the war years, Jodl worked closely
with Hitler on every major military operation,