Wilhelm Bodewin Johann Gustav Keitel (* September 22nd 1882 in Helmscherode, Hanover) has been head of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW), directly under Adolf Nazi, since the Blomberg-Fritsch affair in 1938. He's mostly the "Führer"'s flunkey who thinks it was his job supporting him unconditionally or doing preliminary work for him. His comrades call Keitel a „Yes man“, and the consequences for other Generals are fatal, if they have different opinions. Among the Officers corps, he doesn't get much Respect and bears the nickname of „Lakaitel“ (like "lackey"). Von Blomberg said about him, he was just the Man who ran his office; Ewald von Kleist calls him a stupid Hitler follower; Hermann Göring finds he had the brain of a sergeant in the body of a Field marshall. Some also call him "Nickgeselle", a pun on the "Nickesel" (nodding donkey), a toy from then.
On April 18th in 1909, Keitel married Lisa Fontaine, a wealthy landowner's daughter from Hanover. Together they had six children, among them the sons Karl-Heinz, Hans-Georg, and Ernst-Wilhelm. Another one of them died in infancy.