Alfred Jodl award received Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross
Early life and career
Alfred Jodl was educated at a military cadet school in Munich, from which he graduated in 1910. Ferdinand Jodl, who would also become an army general, was his younger brother. He was the nephew of philosopher and psychologist Friedrich Jodl at the University of Vienna. Jodl was raised Roman Catholic but rejected the faith later in life.From 1914 to 1916, he served with a battery unit on the Western Front, being awarded the Iron Cross 2nd Class for gallantry in November 1914, and for being wounded in action. In 1917, he served briefly on the Eastern Front before returning to the West as a staff officer. In 1918, he was awarded the Iron Cross 1st Class for gallantry in action. After the defeat of the German Empire in 1918, he continued his career as a professional soldier with the much-reduced German Army (Reichswehr). Jodl married twice: in 1913 and (after becoming a widower) in 1944.Jodl spent most of the war at the Wolf's Lair, Hitler's forward command post in East Prussia. On 1 February 1944, he was promoted to the rank of Generaloberst (Colonel general). He was among those slightly injured during the 20 July plot of 1944 against Hitler, during which he suffered a concussion.On 6 May 1945, Jodl was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross by Großadmiral Karl Dönitz, who had succeeded Hitler on 30 April 1945 as head of Germany and its armed forces.Following regional surrenders of German forces in Europe, Jodl was sent by Dönitz to respond to the demand for  "immediate, simultaneous and unconditional surrender on all fronts."  Jodl signed the German Instrument of Surrender on 7 May 1945 in Reims on behalf of the OKW. The surrender to all the Allies was concluded on 8 May in Berlin. On 13 May, on the arrest of Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Keitel, Jodl succeeded him as Chief of OKW.
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