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Wilhelm Bodewin Johann Gustav Keitel (22 September 1882 – 16 October 1946) was a German field marshal who served as chief of the ''Oberkommando der Wehrmacht'' (Supreme High Command of the German Armed Forces) for most of World War II, making him the Chief of Defense for Germany. At the Allied court at Nuremberg, he was tried, sentenced to death, and hanged as a war criminal. He was the third highest-ranking German officer to be tried at Nuremberg. == Early life and career == Keitel was born in the village of Helmscherode near Gandersheim in the Duchy of Brunswick, the eldest son of Carl Keitel (1854–1934), a middle class landowner, and his wife Apollonia Vissering (1855–1888). After completing his education at gymnasium in Göttingen, his plan to take over his family's estates foundered on his father's resistance. Instead, he embarked on a military career in 1901, becoming an officer cadet of the Prussian Army. As a commoner he did not join the cavalry, but the mounted 46th Lower-Saxon Field Artillery Regiment in Wolfenbüttel, serving as adjutant from 1908.〔Mitcham & Mueller (2012). ''Hitler’s Commanders: Officers of the Wehrmacht, the Luftwaffe, the Kriegsmarine, and the Waffen-SS'', p. 1.〕 On 18 April 1909, Keitel married Lisa Fontaine, a wealthy landowner's daughter at Wülfel near Hanover.〔Walter Goerlitz, "Keitel, Jodl, and Warlimont," in Correlli, ed. (2003). ''Hitler’s Generals'', p. 140.〕 Together they had six children, one of whom died in infancy. His eldest son, Karl-Heinz Keitel went on to serve as a divisional commander in the ''Waffen-SS''. During World War I, Keitel served on the Western Front with his artillery regiment and took part in the fighting in Flanders, where he was severely wounded in his right forearm by a shell fragment.〔Mitcham & Mueller (2012). ''Hitler’s Commanders: Officers of the Wehrmacht, the Luftwaffe, the Kriegsmarine, and the Waffen-SS'', p. 2.〕 Elevated to the rank of a captain, Keitel quickly recovered, and in 1915 posted to the General Staff of the 19th Reserve Infantry Division.〔Walter Goerlitz, "Keitel, Jodl, and Warlimont," in Correlli, ed. (2003). ''Hitler’s Generals'', pp. 140–141.〕 He later went on to fight in the First Battle of the Marne, the Battle of Verdun, and in the Battle of Passchendaele, being awarded the Iron Cross 2nd and 1st Class. After the war, Keitel stayed in the newly created ''Reichswehr'' of the Weimar Republic, an army limited to only 100,000 soldiers, and played a part in organizing the paramilitary ''Freikorps'' frontier guard units on the Polish border. He also served as a divisional General Staff officer of the 6th Prussian Artillery Regiment, and later taught at the Hanover Cavalry School for two years, from 1923 with the rank of major. In late 1924, Keitel was transferred to the German Ministry of War in Berlin, serving with the "Troop Office", the post-Versailles disguised German General Staff. Three years later, he returned to the 6th Prussian Artillery Regiment as commander of the 2nd Department.〔 As lieutenant colonel he was again assigned to the Ministry of War in 1929 and soon promoted to Head of the Organizational Department ("T-2"), a post he would hold until the Nazi Party took power in Germany, in 1933. Playing a vital role in the German re-armament, he at least once travelled to the Soviet Union to inspect secret ''Reichswehr'' training camps. Shortly after this, in the autumn of 1932, he suffered from a heart attack, and double pneumonia, followed by a longer stay at a Czechoslovak Sanatorium.〔Others described his condition as having resulted from his smoking, his nerves and more specifically that Keitel suffered an "arterial embolism and thrombosis and had severe phlebitis in his right leg." See: Mitcham & Mueller (2012). ''Hitler’s Commanders: Officers of the Wehrmacht, the Luftwaffe, the Kriegsmarine, and the Waffen-SS'', pp. 2–3.〕 In 1935, based on a recommendation by the Commander-in-Chief Werner von Fritsch, Keitel was promoted to major general and appointed to the Armed Forces Office (''Oberkommando der Wehrmacht''), which had the responsibility over the army, navy, and air force.〔Wheeler-Bennett (1980). ''Nemesis of Power: The German Army in Politics 1918–1945'', pp. 372–374.〕〔Hildebrand (1986). ''The Third Reich'', p. 45.〕 Meanwhile, Nazi notable Hermann Göring still retained relative control over the ''Luftwaffe'' through the Reich Air Ministry, but Admiral Erich Raeder was unable to convince Hitler to give him autonomy over the Navy. Despite being Chief of the OKW, Keitel lacked independent command authority, merely acting as Hitler's agent and issuing orders on his behalf.〔Taylor (1995). ''Sword and Swastika: Generals and Nazis in the Third Reich'', p. 164.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Wilhelm Keitel」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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