Wehrmacht - Command Structure

Command Structure

Legally, the Commander-in-Chief of the Wehrmacht was Adolf Hitler in his capacity as Germany's head of state, a position he gained after the death of President Paul von Hindenburg in August 1934. In the reshuffle in 1938, Hitler became the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces and retained that position until his suicide on 30 April 1945. Administration and military authority initially lay with the war ministry under Generalfeldmarschall Werner von Blomberg. After von Blomberg resigned in the course of the Blomberg-Fritsch Affair (1938), the ministry was dissolved and the Armed Forces High Command (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht or OKW) under Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Keitel was put in its place. It was headquartered in Wünsdorf near Zossen, and a field echelon (Feldstaffel) was stationed wherever the Führer's headquarters were situated at a given time. Army work was also coordinated by the German General Staff, an institution that had been developing for more than a century and which had sought to institutionalize military perfection.

The OKW coordinated all military activities but Keitel's sway over the three branches of service (army, air-force, and navy) was rather limited. Each had its own High Command, known as Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH, army), Oberkommando der Marine (OKM, navy), and Oberkommando der Luftwaffe (OKL, air-force). Each of these high commands had its own general staff. In practice the OKW had operational authority over the Western Front whereas the Eastern Front was under the operational authority of the OKH.

• Supreme High Command of the Armed Forces (OKW)
  • Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces
    • Führer and Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler (1935–1945)
    • Großadmiral Karl Dönitz (1945)
  • Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces
    • Generalfeldmarschall Paul von Hindenburg (1933–1934), President of the Reich
    • Führer and Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler (1934–1935)
    • Generaloberst Werner von Blomberg (1935–1938), Minister for War, promoted Generalfeldmarschall (1936)
      • vested into the Supreme Commander (theoretically) and the Chief of the Supreme High Command (practically)
  • Vice Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces
    • General Werner von Blomberg (1933–1935), promoted Generaloberst 1933
  • Chief of the Armed Forces Supreme High Command—Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Keitel (1938–1945)
  • Chief of the Operations Staff (Wehrmachtführungsstab)—Generaloberst Alfred Jodl

• Supreme High Command of the Army (OKH)
  • Army Commanders-in-Chief
    • Generaloberst Werner von Fritsch (1935–1938)
    • Generaloberst Walther von Brauchitsch (1938–1941), promoted to Generalfeldmarschall 1940
    • Führer and Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler (1941–1945)
    • Generalfeldmarschall Ferdinand Schörner (1945)
  • Chiefs of Staff of the German Army
    • General Ludwig Beck (1935–1938)
    • General Franz Halder (1938–1942)
    • General Kurt Zeitzler (1942–1944)
    • Generaloberst Heinz Guderian (1944–1945)
    • General Hans Krebs (1945, committed suicide in the Führerbunker)

• Supreme High Command of the Navy (OKM)
  • War Navy Commanders-in-Chief
    • Admiral Erich Raeder (1928–1943), promoted to Generaladmiral 1936, Großadmiral 1940
    • Großadmiral Karl Dönitz (1943–1945)
    • Generaladmiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg (1945)
  • "Admiral Inspector": Großadmiral Erich Raeder (1943–1945) (sinecure)

• Supreme High Command of the Air-Force (OKL)
  • Air-Force Commanders-in-Chief
    • General Hermann Göring (1935–1945), promoted Generaloberst 1936, Generalfeldmarschall 1938 (!), Reichsmarschall (singularily) 1940
    • Generalfeldmarschall Robert Ritter von Greim (1945)

The OKW was also given the task of central economic planning and procurement, but the authority and influence of the OKW's war economy office (Wehrwirtschaftsamt) was challenged by the procurement offices (Waffenämter) of the single branches of service as well as by the Ministry for Armament and Munitions (Reichsministerium für Bewaffnung und Munition), into which it was merged after the ministry was taken over by Albert Speer in early 1942.