Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht adalah nama angkatan bersenjata Nazi-Jerman sejak tahun 1935 sampai 1945. Selama Perang Dunia II, Wehrmacht terdiri dari "Heer" (Angkatan Darat), "Kriegsmarine" (Angkatan Laut), "Luftwaffe" (Angkatan Udara) dan Pasukan Elit Jerman saat itu "Waffen-SS" ("SS Bersenjata"), serta ditambah unit-unit bekas "Sturmabteilung" (SA).
Sebelum bangkitnya NSDAP, istilah "Wehrmacht" digunakan dalam arti umum untuk menyebutkan angkatan bersenjata dari bangsa manapun, yang difungsikan sebagai "pertahanan tanah air". Contohnya, istilah "Britische Wehrmacht" berarti menunjuk kepada angkatan bersenjata Inggris.
Pasal 47 dari Undang-undang Dasar Republik Weimar tahun 1919 menyatakan ""Reichspräsident" memegang kekuasaan tertinggi semua angkatan bersenjata "Reich"". Untuk memberi ciri khas, istilah "Reichswehr" digunakan untuk menyebut angkatan bersenjata Jerman.
Pada tahun 1935, atau pada saat Kaum Nazi bangkit, "Reichswehr" kemudian diganti menjadi "Wehrmacht". Maka, istilah "Wehrmacht" secara tak resmi digunakan untuk merujuk kepada angkatan bersenjata Jerman selama masa "Reich ke-3" dan PD II
Wehrmacht mengalami modernisasi Alutsista pada masa kepemimpinan Adolf Hitler,dia (Hitler) setelah menjadi kanselir Jerman,memerintahkan seluruh angkatan bersenjata Jerman untuk di modernisasi guna menentang "perjanjian Versailles".untuk memulai ambisi dari "Reich ke-3" yang begitu dibanggakan oleh Hitler.
Berbagai macam eksperimen dan perkembangan persenjataan dimulai pada awal tahun 1937
Setelah Nazi Jerman menyerah tanpa syarat pada tanggal 7 Mei 1945, Jerman dilarang memiliki angkatan bersenjata. Terbelahnya Jerman pada masa Perang Dingin memicu pembentukan angkatan militer di Republik Federal Jerman (Jerman Barat) dan Republik Demokratik Jerman (Jerman Timur).
Militer Jerman Barat terbentuk pada tanggal 5 Mei 1955 dengan nama Bundeswehr yang berarti Angkatan Pertahanan Federal. Sementara militer Jerman Timur dibentuk pada 1 Maret 1956 dengan nama Tentara Rakyat Nasional (Nationale Volksarmee).
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)
Ludwig Beck—Chief of the General Staff of the Heer from 1933 to 1938
Fedor von Bock—Commander of the failed Operation Typhoon
Walther von Brauchitsch—Commander-in-Chief of the Heer from 1938 to 1941
Wilhelm Franz Canaris—Head of the Abwehr, a Wehrmacht intelligence service
Karl Dönitz—Grand Admiral of the Kriegsmarine and architect of the U-boat force; last President of the Third Reich following Hitler's suicide
Reinhard Gehlen—Chief of military intelligence on the Eastern Front; first head of the postwar Federal Intelligence Service (BND)
Heinz Guderian—Panzer commander
Franz Halder—Chief of the General Staff of the Heer from 1938 to 1942
Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord—Commander-in-Chief of the Reichswehr and opponent of Hitler
Hermann Hoth—Panzer commander on the Eastern Front
Alfred Jodl—Chief of the Operations Staff of the OKW
Wilhelm Keitel—Commander-in-Chief of the OKW
Albert Kesselring—An Air-Marshal of the Luftwaffe; overall commander of the Mediterranean theater
Ewald von Kleist—A Field Marshal of the Heer
Hans Günther von Kluge—Field Marshal and Commander of Oberbefehlshaber West
Siegfried Knemeyer—Chief Luftwaffe aviation technologist under air force C-in-C Hermann Goering
Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb—Commander of Army Group C during the Battle of France
Günther Lütjens—Admiral and Fleet Commander of the Bismarck flotilla
Erich von Manstein—Field Marshal, military strategist, and prominent proponent of the Blitzkrieg
Walter Model—Field Marshal, Commanded the defence of the Eastern Front from the Soviet counterattack
Friedrich Paulus—Commander of German forces at Stalingrad
Erich Raeder—Grand Admiral of the Kriegsmarine, credited with building the Kriegsmarine
Walther von Reichenau—Commander of the 6th Army
Wolfram Freiherr von Richthofen—Field Marshal in command of the Stuka forces of the Luftwaffe for a time during the war, relative of The Red Baron of World War I
Robert Ritter von Greim—Field Marshal, Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe in the last days of the war
Erwin Rommel—Field Marshal, commander of the Afrika Korps
Gerd von Rundstedt—Generalfeldmarschall, held amongst the highest commands throughout World War II
Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg—one of the leading participants in the 20 July plot
Kurt Student—founder and commander of Germany's Fallschirmjäger airborne troops
Erwin von Witzleben—prominent conspirator of the 20 July plot