Bodewin Keitel

Bodewin Keitel
Chief of the Army Personnel Office
In office 4 February 1938 – 1 October 1942
Preceded by	Viktor von Schwedler
Succeeded by	Rudolf Schmundt
Born	25 December 1888(1888-12-25) Helmscherode Estate, Kreis Gandersheim, Duchy of Brunswick, German Empire
Died	29 July 1953 (aged 64) Göttingen, Lower Saxony, West Germany
Resting place	Bad Gandersheim, on their old Helmscherode Estate ground
Spouse(s)	∞ 1916 Ilse Roth
Military service
Allegiance	German Empire Weimar Republic National Socialist Germany
Service/branch	Prussian Army Imperial German Army Freikorps Reichswehr Heer
Rank	General of the Infantry
Battles/wars	World War I World War II
Awards	German Cross in Silver

Bodewin Klaus Eduard Keitel (also Claus; 25 December 1888 – 29 July 1953) was a German officer of the Prussian Army, the Imperial German Army, the Freikorps, the Reichswehr and the Wehrmacht, finally General of the Infantry in World War II.

Life

The Keitel family's manor house in Helmscherode

POW and post-WWII

On 3 May 1945, General Bodewin Keitel was taken prisoner of war. While in captivity, he fell gravely ill with Parkinson’s disease—a condition that could no longer be treated in the British military hospital where he was held. In April 1947, he was transferred to a hospital in Göttingen and was ultimately released from there.

He moved in with his sister, Annemarie, in Bodenfelde. Living space was extremely scarce due to the influx of Vertriebene, and people lived in very cramped quarters. Consequently, he lived a completely secluded life at the Götzenhof—an estate named after its owners, the Götz von Olenhusen family. He sought no contact with the people of Bodenfelde; indeed, due to his progressive illness, he was barely capable of doing so.

His grandson, Vollrad Kutscher, recalls frequently visiting him and his grandmother in Bodenfelde and picking up the papers that would slip from his grandfather’s desk because of his trembling hands. He was writing his memoirs—though he covered only his time in Helmscherode.

Before long, due to partial paralysis, he lost the ability to speak as well. Most of the time, he would sit silently by the window in his room, gazing out. Occasionally, his wife would take him for a walk along the path known as the "Schwarzer Weg."

This was where the path of his life had ultimately led him: he had learned the soldier’s craft from the ground up. His career had carried him—straight through the fires of two world wars—from the rank of Prussian lieutenant to the very pinnacle of a military career: that of a commanding general. What followed were years of internment, his release as a terminally ill man, and—the final destination—Bodenfelde.

They were a taciturn generation, those returning soldiers. We can only surmise what went on inside the mind of this dying man, for he spoke no more. And many others—those who could have spoken—chose to remain silent as well. Such is the way of people whose fundamental certainties in life have been shaken to their very core.

Death

General of the Infantry (Ret.) Bodewin Keitel died on 29 July 1953 in a hospital in Göttingen surrounded by his family.

Family

Keitel was born in Helmscherode near Gandersheim as the son of lord of the manor (Gut Helmscherode) Carl Heinrich Wilhelm Keitel (also: Carl Wilhelm August Louis Keitel; 1854–1934) and his wife (∞ 2 September 1881) Apollonia, née Vissering (27 April 1857 – 3 February 1889). Bodewin never fully overcame the fact that his mother died of childbed fever barely six weeks after his birth. His older brother was Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Keitel. His younger stepsister (his father married again in 1900, the 26-year-old governess Anna Grégoire) was Annemarie Keitel, born on 26 July 1902 in Helmscherode. On 5 September 1937, she married the farmer and landowner Georg Paul Cornelius Dempewolf.

Marriage

On 16 August 1916 in Braunschweig, 1st Lieutenant Keitel married his Protestant fiancée Karla Marie Ilse Roth (b. 3 May 1893 in Braunschweig; d. 3 August 1981 in Lippoldsberg), daughter of Senior Medical Councilor (Obermedizinalrat) Dr. med. Karl Roth, City Physician of Braunschweig. They would have three children:

• Hans(-)Joachim Karl Wilhelm Hellmuth (b. 5 November 1917 in Braunschweig; d. in Isernhagen near Hanover), Major of the Wehrmacht in WWII, industry representative and Colonel of the Reserves of the Bundeswehr; ∞ Berlin 31 January 1942 Ingeborg Anni Franziska Gertrud Fürbringer, daughter of Rear Admiral Werner Fürbringer; 2 children: daughter Sigrid, married von der Decken (b. 1944), and Johann-Henning (b. 1948), Lieutenant Colonel of the Bundeswehr (1970 to 2003) and politician (CDU)
  • author of several books, including History of the Keitel Family (1989) and a book on his uncle Keitel in Nürnberg. Stellungnahme des Generalfeldmarschalls und Chef des OKW zu verschiedenen Anklagepunkten im Nürnberger Prozeß (2002)
• Ingeborg Anna Franziska Gertrud (b. 27 September 1919 in Goslar; d. 30 April 2015 in Wiesbaden); ∞ Berlin 1 October 1941 Christoph Friedrich Kutscher (1915-2004), Colonel in General Staff of the Wehrmacht (17th Infantry Division), 1945 to 1948 POW, studies in Protestant theology at the University of Göttingen, Pastor (1953–1956 in Fürstenhagen, 1975–1979 in Windhoek) and (1956–1973) Colonel in General Staff of the Bundeswehr; 6 children
• Oda Marieliese Nona (b. 16 December 1924 in Braunschweig; d. 2010 in Hanover), Dr. med., she studied neurology and psychiatry in Hanover; her medical training was followed by an additional five-year course of instruction in psychoanalysis; ∞ prominent artist Erich Adolf Grün (1915–2009), technical inspector, later Fallschirmjäger in WWII, POW in Malta in 1945, escaped and returned home in 1947; his first wife (∞ 1939) and their three children were killed in an Allied air raid on Cottbus in 1944.

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Promotions

• 23 February 1909 Fahnenjunker (Officer Candidate)
• 1 August 1909 Fahnenjunker-Oberjäger (Officer Candidate with Corporal/NCO/Junior Sergeant rank)
• 19 November 1909 Fähnrich (Officer Cadet)
• 22 August 1910 Leutnant (2nd Lieutenant) with Patent from 22 August 1908
• 25 February 1915 Oberleutnant (1st Lieutenant)
• 18 December 1917 Hauptmann (Captain)
  • 1 February 1922 received Reichswehr Rank Seniority (RDA) from 18 December 1917 (3)
  • 1 October 1924 renamed Rittmeister
  • 1 October 1925 renamed Hauptmann
• 1 October 1929 Major with RDA from 1 February 1928 (30a)
• 1 October 1932 (24) Oberstleutnant (Lieutenant Colonel)
• 1 October 1934 (12) Oberst (Colonel)
• 28 February 1938 Generalmajor (Major General) with effect and RDA from 1 March 1938 (12)
• 29 February 1940 Generalleutnant (Lieutenant General) with effect and RDA from 1 March 1940 (6)
• 20 April 1941 General der Infanterie (General of the Infantry) with effect from 1 April 1941 without RDA
  • 17 December 1941 received RDA from 1 October 1941 (1g)

Awards and decorations

• Iron Cross (1914), 2nd and 1st Class
  • 2nd Class on 17 September 1914
  • 1st Class on 5 November 1916
• Saxon Albert Order (Albrechts-Orden), Knight 2nd Class with Swords (SA3b⚔) on 14 January 1915
• Brunswick War Merit Cross (Herzoglich Braunschweigisches Kriegsverdienstkreuz), 2nd and 1st Class
  • 2nd Class (BrK2) on 24 March 1915
    • Frontline Service Horse Clasp on the ribbon (Bewährungsabzeichen auf dem Band; BrK2a)
  • 1st Class (BrK1) on 1 July 1918
• Hamburg Hanseatic Cross (HH) on 12 July 1918
• Honour Cross of the World War 1914/1918 with Swords on 18 January 1935
• Wehrmacht Long Service Award (Wehrmacht-Dienstauszeichnung), 4th to 1st Class on 2 October 1936
• German Red Cross Decoration (Ehrenzeichen des Deutschen Roten Kreuzes), 1st Class (neck order with golden oak leaves) on 5 September 1938
• Hungarian Order of Merit, Commander's Cross with Star on 26 September 1938
• Anschluss Medal on 21 November 1938
• Order of the Yugoslav Crown, 2nd Class on 1 June 1939
• Sudetenland Medal with the “Prague Castle” clasp on 10 July 1939
• Repetition Clasp 1939 to the Iron Cross 1914, 2nd and 1st Class
• Imperial Order of the Yoke and Arrows, Encomienda con Placa No. 99 (Grand Commander / Grand Officer with star/plaque) on 20 January 1941
• Finnish Order of the Cross of Liberty (Finnisches Freiheitskreuz), 1st Class with Oakleaves and Swords on 25 March 1942
• German Cross in Silver on 2 October 1942 as General der Infanterie and Chief of the Heerespersonalamt

Sources

• German Federal Archives: BArch PERS 6/215 and PERS 6/299972