marked him for staff
work. Thereafter, he re-
mained disinclined to-
ward field service and
subsequently established
himself as a staff officer
of some repute.
After the war, Keitel
circulated among the
many paramilitary orga-
nizations terrorizing the
streets of the Weimar Re-
public and was eventu-
ally readmitted into the
ranks of a greatly re-
duced peacetime estab-
lishment. A dull, if com-
petent, administrator, he
rose steadily through the
ranks and, in 1929, gained
appointment as head of
the Army Organization
Department. By 1933, his
good performance landed
him a position within the
secret German General
Staff, which had been outlawed by the 1919
Treaty of Versailles. Germany at that time was
covertly rearming itself, and Keitel took the
necessary precautions to maintain secrecy.
“No document must be lost, since otherwise
enemy propaganda will make use of it,” he
warned. “Matters communicated orally can-
not be proved; they can be denied.” Keitel
again demonstrated his competence by per-
forming smoothly, and in 1937 he advanced to
general of artillery. This promotion arose de-
spite the fact he had never commanded any-
thing larger than a battery! That same year,
Keitel’s career took a fateful turn when he
married the daughter of army Chief of Staff
Werner von Bloomberg. When Hitler sacked
Bloomberg in 1938 to consolidate his control
over the military, he learned of Keitel and in-
quired about him. Once informed he was
nothing but an efficient, colorless secretary,
the Führer shot back, “That is exactly the
kind of man I am looking for.” Thus, the non-
descript Keitel suddenly
found himself as head of
the army’s General Staff—
and part of Hitler’s inner
circle.
Keitel’s ensuing rela-
tionship to Hitler quickly
became one of complete
and utter subservience.
Despite his rank as nomi-
nal head of the armed
forces, he never ques-
tioned or challenged any
of the Führer’s directives.
His main role was trying
to make strategic sense
of Hitler’s ravings and ad-
just the military means
necessary to implement
them. As time went by,
this became increasingly
more difficult. Not sur-
prisingly, Keitel’s supine
compliance incurred the
contempt of fellow gener-
als, who nicknamed him
“Lakaitel” from the German word for lackey.
His obedience ultimately exerted disastrous
consequences for Germany’s military for-
tunes, for Keitel deliberately suppressed bad
news from reaching Hitler. This, in turn, un-
dermined the effectiveness of the General
Staff in its ability to plan for war and ensured
that strategic control of any future conflict
passed directly into Hitler’s misguided hands.
Nevertheless, Keitel repeatedly declared that
the Führer’s rise to power was “the greatest
revolution in all world history.”
World War II commenced in September
1939, when German forces invaded and over-
ran Poland. Keitel functioned as Hitler’s key
military adviser, but his real role was that of
military spokesman for the High Command.
Hitler usually ignored most advice, but he
prized deference and promoted Keitel to field
marshal after the fall of France in 1940. Keitel
was then authorized to negotiate an armistice
with French leaders, which he accomplishedKEITEL, WILHELM
Wilhelm Keitel
Imperial War Museum