Alfred Josef Ferdinand Jodl (10 May 1890 – 16 October 1946) was a German military commander, attaining the position of Chief of the Operations Staff of the Armed Forces High Command (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, or OKW) during World War II, acting as deputy to Wilhelm Keitel. At Nuremberg he was tried, sentenced to death and hanged as a war criminal.
Early life
Jodl was born Alfred Josef Ferdinand Baumgärtler in
Würzburg,
Germany, the son of Officer Alfred Jodl and Therese Baumgärtler, becoming "Alfred Jodl" upon his parents' marriage in 1899. He was educated at Cadet School in
Munich, from which he graduated in 1910. General
Ferdinand Jodl was his younger brother. The philosopher and psychologist Friedrich Jodl at the University of Vienna was his uncle.
After schooling, Jodl joined the army as an artillery officer. During World War I he served as a battery officer on the Western Front from 1914–1916, twice being wounded. In 1917 Jodl served briefly on the Eastern Front before returning to the west as a staff officer. After the war Jodl remained in the armed forces and joined the Versailles-limited Reichswehr.
Jodl had married Irma Gräfin von Bullion, a woman five years his senior from an aristocratic Swabian family, in September 1913. She died in Königsberg in the spring of 1944 of pneumonia contracted after major spinal surgery. The following November, Jodl married Luise von Benda, a close family friend.
World War II
to the left and Generaladmiral
Hans-Georg von Friedeburg to the right) signing the German Instrument of Surrender at
Reims, France 7 May 1945]]
Jodl's appointment as a
major in the operations branch of the
Truppenamt in the Army High Command in the last days of the
Weimar Republic put him under command of General
Ludwig Beck, who recognised Jodl as "a man with a future", although it was only on September 1939 that Jodl met with
Adolf Hitler for the first time. In the build-up to World War II, Jodl was nominally assigned as a
Artilleriekommandeur of the 44th Division from October 1938 to August 1939 during the
Anschluss, but from then until the end of the war in May 1945 he was
Chef des Wehrmachtsführungsstabes (Chief of Operation Staff
OKW).
Jodl acted as a
Chief of Staff during the swift occupation of
Denmark and
Norway. During the campaign, Hitler interfered only when the German destroyer flotilla was demolished outside
Narvik and wanted the German forces there to retreat into
Sweden. Jodl successfully thwarted Hitler's orders. Jodl disagreed with Hitler for the second time during the summer offensive of 1942. Hitler dispatched Jodl to the
Caucasus to visit
Field-Marshal Wilhelm List to find out why the oil fields had not been captured. Jodl returned only to corroborate List's reports that the troops were at their last gasp.
During the Battle of Britain Jodl was optimistic of Britain's demise and on 30 June 1940 wrote "The final German victory over England is now only a question of time."
Jodl signed the Commando Order of 28 October 1942 (in which Allied Commandos, including uniformed soldiers as well as combatants wearing civilian clothes such as Maquis and Partisans were not to be treated as POWs) and the Commissar Order of 6 June 1941 (in which Soviet Political Commissioners were to be shot).
He was injured during the 20 July plot of 1944 against Hitler. Because of this, Jodl was awarded the special wounded badge alongside several other leading Nazi figures. He was also rather vocal about his suspicions that others had not endured wounds as strong as his own, often downplaying the effects of the plot on others.
At the end of World War II in Europe, Jodl signed the instruments of unconditional surrender on 7 May 1945 in Reims as the representative of Karl Dönitz.
Trial and execution
in Reims on 7 May 1945]]
in the family grave in the Fraueninsel Cemetery, in
Chiemsee]]
Jodl was arrested and transferred to
Flensburg POW camp and later put before the International Military Tribunal at the
Nuremberg Trials. Jodl was accused of
conspiracy to commit
crimes against peace; planning, initiating and waging
wars of aggression;
war crimes; and
crimes against humanity. The principal charges against him related to his signature of the Commando Order and the Commissar Order, both of which ordered that certain prisoners were to be summarily executed. Additional charges at his trial included unlawful
deportation and abetting execution. Presented as evidence was his signature on an order that transferred
Danish citizens, including
Jews and other civilians, to
concentration camps. Although he denied his role in the crime, the court sustained his complicity based on the given evidence.
His wife Luise attached herself to her husband's defense team. Subsequently interviewed by Gitta Sereny, researching her biography of Albert Speer, Luise alleged that in many instances the Allied prosecution made charges against Jodl based on documents that they refused to share with the defense. Jodl nevertheless proved that some of the charges made against him were untrue, such as the charge that he had helped Hitler gain control of Germany in 1933. Allegedly, he was in one instance aided by a GI clerk who chose to give Luise a document showing that the execution of a group of British commandos in Norway had been legitimate. The GI warned Luise that if she did not copy it immediately she would never see it again; "... it was being 'filed'."
Jodl pleaded not guilty "before God, before history and my people". Found guilty on all four charges, he was hanged (with Keitel, on 16 October 1946) although he had asked the court to be executed by firing squad.
Jodl's last words were reportedly "Ich grüße Dich, mein ewiges Deutschland - My greetings to you, my eternal Germany." He was declared dead 18 minutes later.
His remains were cremated at Munich, and his ashes raked out and scattered into the Isar River (effectively an attempt to prevent the establishment of a permanent burial site to those nationalist groups who might seek to congregate there—an example of this being Benito Mussolini's grave in Predappio, Italy). A cenotaph in the family plot in the Fraueninsel Cemetery, in Chiemsee, Germany is dedicated to him.
German court decision
On 28 February 1953, the
München Hauptspruchkammer (Main
denazification court) declared Jodl not guilty of the main charges brought against him at Nuremberg, citing the
French co-President of the Tribunal,
Henri Donnedieu de Vabres, who had in 1945 called the verdict against Jodl a mistake. His property, which had been confiscated in 1946, was returned to his widow. The declaration was revoked on 3 September 1953 by the Minister of Political Liberation for
Bavaria supported by many western allied generals. In any case, this declaration did not affect the verdict of the International Military Tribunal, whose decisions were not subject to review by German courts.
Decorations
Iron Cross (1914)
* 2nd Class (20 November 1914)
* 1st Class (3 May 1918)
Wound Badge
* in Black
Cross of Honor in 1934
Anschluss Medal
Sudetenland Medal
Iron Cross
* 2nd Class (30 September 1939)
* 1st Class (23 December 1939)
Wound Badge of 20 July 1944
* in Black
Golden Party Badge (30 January 1943)
Order of Michael the Brave
* 3rd Class (23 December 1943)
* 2nd Class (23 December 1943)
Order of the Cross of Liberty 1st Class with Swords (25 March 1942)
Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves
Knight's Cross on 6 May 1945 as Generaloberst and Chef des Wehrmachtfuhrungsstabes im OKW
865th Oak Leaves on 10 May 1945 as Generaloberst and Chef des Wehrmachtfuhrungsstabes im OKW und stellv. Chef OKW
Portrayal in the media
Alfred Jodl has been portrayed by the following actors in film and television productions.
Erik Hell in the 1943 Swedish film Det brinner en eld (There Burned a Flame).
Vladimir Pokrovsky in the 1949 Soviet epic The Fall of Berlin.
Boris Svoboda in the 1949 Soviet film The Battle of Stalingrad.
Jack Baston in the 1951 United States film .
Otto Schmöle in the
1955 West German film
Der Letzte Akt (
Hitler: The Last Ten Days).
Walter Kohler in the 1962 United States film Hitler.
Wolfgang Lukschy in the 1962 United States film The Longest Day.
Hannes Messemer in the 1966 French/U.S. film Paris brûle-t-il? (Is Paris Burning?).
Werner Dissel in the 1970 Eastern Block co-production Liberation.
Richard Münch in the 1970 United States film Patton.
August Kowalczyk in the 1971 Polish film Epilog norymberski (Epilogue at Nurnberg).
Tony Steedman in the 1973 British television production The Death of Adolf Hitler.
Philip Stone in the 1973 British film .
Wolfgang Preiss in the 1979 United States T.V. mini-series Ike.
Tony Steedman in the 1981 United States television production The Bunker.
Joachim Hansen in the 1983 United States T.V. series The Winds of War and its 1988 sequel War and Remembrance.
Bill Corday in the 2000 Canadian/U.S. T.V. production Nuremberg
Christian Redl in the 2004 German film Downfall (Der Untergang'').
In the Downfall parodies, Jodl usually argues against Hiler's plans saying that they will either fail or because of his dislike of the topic
Krasimir Kutzoparov in the 2006 British/U.S. television production .
Notes
References
;Citations
;Bibliography
Fellgiebel, Walther-Peer (2000). Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939–1945. Friedburg, Germany: Podzun-Pallas. ISBN 3-7909-0284-5.
Schaulen, Fritjof (2004). Eichenlaubträger 1940 – 1945 Zeitgeschichte in Farbe II Ihlefeld – Primozic (in German). Selent, Germany: Pour le Mérite. ISBN 3-932381-21-1.
Scherzer, Veit (2007). Ritterkreuzträger 1939–1945 Die Inhaber des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939 von Heer, Luftwaffe, Kriegsmarine, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm sowie mit Deutschland verbündeter Streitkräfte nach den Unterlagen des Bundesarchives (in German). Jena, Germany: Scherzers Miltaer-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2.
Hitler and his generals. Military Conferences 1942–1945, Edited by Helmut Heiber and David M. Glantz. (Enigma Books: New York, 2004. ISBN 1-929631-28-6)
External links
World War 2 Awards.com
Alfred Jodl at Find-A-Grave
The trial of Alfred Jodl – Trial watch
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum – Alfred Jodl
A Short Historical Consideration of German War Guilt By Alfred Jodl, 6 September 1946
Category:1890 births
Category:1946 deaths
Category:Wehrmacht generals
Category:German military personnel of World War I
Category:German military personnel of World War II
Category:Military of Bavaria
Category:People from Würzburg
Category:People from the Kingdom of Bavaria
Category:People executed by the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg
Category:Executed generals and admirals
Category:People executed by hanging
Category:Recipients of the Iron Cross
Category:Recipients of the Cross of Honor
Category:Recipients of the Knight's Cross
Category:Recipients of the Order of the Cross of Liberty
Category:Recipients of the Order of Michael the Brave
Category:German people convicted of the international crime of aggression
Category:German people convicted of crimes against humanity
Category:Executed German people
Category:Executed Nazis
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