The end of World War II in Europe left the surviving leaders of Nazi Germany's military facing an uncertain and often difficult future. Some were tried as war criminals, others were imprisoned and later released, and a few spent their final years defending their records. The fates of several of the most prominent German commanders illustrate how differently their postwar lives unfolded.
Karl Dönitz was a pivotal figure in German naval history during the war. He commanded the U-boat fleet of the Kriegsmarine and waged a fierce battle in the depths of the Atlantic, rising to the rank of grand admiral and succeeding Erich Raeder.
From 1939 to 1943, his U-boats dominated the Atlantic, but the tide of advantage shifted in May 1943, testing the resilience of his fleet. After Hitler's death, Dönitz succeeded him as head of state in the Goebbels cabinet, which later became the Flensburg government.
In a momentous turn of events, he directed the signing of Germany's surrender, effectively marking the end of the war in Europe. Dönitz continued to serve as president of Germany and supreme commander of the armed forces until the Allied powers dissolved the cabinet.
His affiliation with the Nazi Party and his support for Hitler cast a dark shadow over his legacy. Tried as a primary war criminal at Nuremberg, he faced charges of conspiracy to commit crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
He was acquitted of crimes against humanity but found guilty of the other charges and served a 10-year sentence in Berlin's Spandau prison. After his release in 1956, Dönitz relocated to a small town near Hamburg.
In 1958 he published his autobiography, "Memoirs: Ten Years and Twenty Days," claiming he had no knowledge of Hitler's crimes. Dönitz died in 1980 after a prolonged illness.
Gerd von Rundstedt began his career as a staff officer during World War I, and his military service continued through the interwar years, allowing him to reach the rank of colonel general before retiring in 1938. When World War II began, he was recalled to duty to lead Army Group South during the invasion of Poland.
He briefly lost his command in December 1941 for allowing the retreat from Rostov, but was reinstated as commander-in-chief in the West in 1942. As the Allies landed in Normandy on June 6, 1944, von Rundstedt and Rommel were assigned to contain the situation.
Von Rundstedt soon realized the futility of their efforts and began advocating for peace. Following a failed counterattack near Caen on July 1, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, head of the German armed forces, asked him for a solution.
He famously retorted, "Make peace, you fools. What else can you do?" He was removed from command the following day, then recalled as commander-in-chief in the West in September, a position he held until Hitler dismissed him in March 1945.
On May 1, the day after Hitler's suicide in Berlin, troops from the 36th Infantry Division made him a prisoner of war. During his interrogation he suffered a heart attack.
Von Rundstedt was moved between camps in southern Wales and Suffolk in Britain, where the British charged him with war crimes during the invasion of the Soviet Union. The charges related primarily to his assistance of the Severity Order issued by von Reichenau, which led to mass murders in occupied Soviet territory.
Due to his advanced age and deteriorating health, he was never put on trial and was released in 1948. He spent his retirement at Schloss Oppenhausen in Lower Saxony, continually troubled by heart conditions, until his death on February 24, 1953.
Albert Kesselring followed one of the most diverse career paths of the war and was known for a pleasant demeanor that earned him the nickname "Smiling Albert." His military career began in World War I and continued into the era of the Weimar Republic before he shifted to the Luftwaffe in 1935.
A year later he became a lieutenant general and chief of the general staff of the Luftwaffe. His wartime role was significant: he led air fleets in Poland and France and played a crucial part in the Battle of Britain.
After the attack on the Soviet Union, Kesselring took up the position of commander-in-chief South. Following the Allied invasions of Sicily and Italy in 1943, he devised a defensive strategy that delayed an Allied victory for over a year.
Taking over as commander-in-chief West in March 1945, he could not stop the Allied push into Germany and ultimately surrendered the southern German forces on May 7, 1945. He remained loyal to Hitler throughout his career.
In October 1945 he was called as a witness in the Allied war crimes trial. Two years later, in 1947, a British military court in Venice found him guilty of war crimes.
He was convicted for ordering the execution of 335 Italian civilian hostages, known as the Ardeatine Caves massacre, in March 1944, as retaliation for an Italian partisan attack on German soldiers. Initially sentenced to death on May 6, 1947, his sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment.
He was pardoned and released in 1952 because of his declining health, after which he became involved in numerous veterans associations. Kesselring died in 1960.
Erich von Manstein is widely known as one of the most skillful commanders of World War II. He began the war as chief of staff to General Gerd von Rundstedt during the invasion of Poland in 1939.
Manstein devised a bold plan to invade France through the Ardennes Forest, a strategy initially ignored by the German High Command but later embraced enthusiastically by Adolf Hitler. After commanding an infantry corps in the French assault and becoming a general in June 1940, he led the 56th Panzer Corps in the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, almost capturing Leningrad.
He then took command of the 11th Army on the southern front, capturing 430,000 Soviet prisoners and successfully resisting the ensuing Soviet counteroffensive. His capture of Sevastopol in July 1942 resulted in his promotion to field marshal.
Despite his efforts to relieve the encircled Sixth Army at Stalingrad between 1942 and 1943, and his recapture of Kharkov in February 1943, he was forced to retreat and was dismissed by Hitler in March 1944. After the war he was captured by the British in 1945 and stood trial for war crimes.
He was acquitted of the most serious charges but remained imprisoned until his release due to health issues in 1953. He later served as an advisor to the West German government on army organization, published his memoirs, and died in 1973.
Alfred Jodl, holding the rank of generaloberst, was a prominent figure in the German military during World War II. He served as chief of the operations staff within the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, the high command of the German armed forces, throughout the duration of the war.
Jodl was apprehended by British soldiers on May 23, 1945, alongside the rest of Admiral Dönitz's Flensburg government. He was initially confined at Camp Ashcan before being presented to the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg.
He stood accused of scheming to perpetrate crimes against peace, initiating and conducting wars of aggression, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. The primary accusations tied to his name were his endorsement of the Commando Order and the Commissar Order, which mandated the immediate execution of specific categories of prisoners of war upon capture.
Jodl justified the 1941 mass shootings of Soviet POWs by asserting that only those prisoners who chose not to walk were executed, not those physically unable to do so. He faced numerous accusations during his trial, including illegal deportation and facilitating executions, supported by his documented order to relocate Danish citizens, Jewish individuals included, to Nazi-operated concentration camps.
He successfully refuted several accusations, such as his alleged aid to Hitler in seizing control of Germany in 1933. Jodl pleaded not guilty, but was eventually found guilty on all four counts and hanged in Nuremberg prison on October 16, 1946. His final utterance was "Deutschland," meaning "I salute you, my eternal Germany."
Wilhelm Keitel was one of Adolf Hitler's closest and most loyal associates. He played a crucial role in directing the military operations of the Third Reich during the war, serving as chief of Hitler's personal military staff.
Keitel's career during World War I mostly involved staff officer and administrative roles. In the Weimar Republic he gained promotion to major general in 1933 and took command of an infantry division in 1934.
It was during this time that Keitel developed a strong admiration for Hitler. From 1935 to 1938, Hitler removed several generals he considered disloyal and restructured the German High Command.
Keitel's involvement in devising a consolidated command structure caught Hitler's attention, leading to his appointment as its leader in 1938, a position he held until the end of World War II. Following his promotion, Keitel played a significant role in bringing Austria and Czechoslovakia under Nazi control.
He also participated in planning the 1939 attack on Poland, which marked the beginning of World War II. In 1940 he outlined the terms of surrender to the French government after Hitler promoted him to field marshal that same year.
Keitel quickly began planning the invasion of the Soviet Union. He was present at Hitler's field headquarters during a bombing but escaped unharmed, and he later led operations to regain control over the conspirators behind the July 20 plot, serving on the court of honor that effectively expelled many of them from the German military and ensured their conviction and death sentences by a civilian court.
Keitel was captured by the British in May 1945 and subsequently indicted for war crimes by the International Military Tribunal in August of the same year. During his trial at Nuremberg alongside other top Nazi officials, his war planning activities were presented as evidence of crimes against peace, and the orders he issued during the Russian offensive were characterized as war crimes against civilians.
Unlike most defendants, Keitel accepted responsibility for his actions, acknowledging that he was responsible for all outcomes resulting from his signed orders. In October 1946 he was found guilty of the charges and sentenced to death. Despite his request for execution by a military firing squad, Keitel was hanged on October 16, 1946, in Nuremberg.