German military commander; Hitler's chief adviser on strategy and operations throughout World War II
Born in Wuerzburg, Bavaria, Jodl served in World War I mainly in staff assignments. After the war, he served until 1938 as Chef der Abteilung Landesverteidigung (Head of the Defence Department) in the General Staff. On August 22, 1939, he was appointed Chef des Wehrmachtfuehrungsstabes im OKW (Chief of the Armed Forces High Command Operational Staff), a post he held until the end of World War II. In this capacity he directed, under Adolf Hitler and Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, all the campaigns except that against the Soviet Union, which was conducted by the Oberkommando des Heeres (Army High Command; OKH), and countersigned many orders to shoot hostages and to execute other war crimes contrary to international law. He was promoted in 1940 to the rank of general of artillery, and in 1944 to Generaloberst (senior general). On May 7, 1945, Jodl signed, by order of Adm. Karl Donitz, Hitler's successor, the general capitulation of the German armed forces at Reims, France. He was sentenced to death for war crimes by the International Military Tribunal (see Nuremberg trial) on October 1, 1946, and was hanged on October 16. During Jodl's imprisonment in Nuremberg, he dictated a number of memoranda, including "Betrachtungen ueber den Einfluss Hitlers auf die Kriegsfuehrung" (Reflections on Hitler's Impact on the Conduct of War). Though a stout believer in Hitler's genius, Jodl came to believe while in prison that he had in fact been exploited by the Nazi leader.
