Founded in February 1938 before the outbreak of the war, it was theoretically the highest command body of the Armed Forces of Nazi Germany, which could command the Wehrmacht General Command (OKH), the General Command of the Navy (OKM) and the General Command of the Air Force (OKL), and each of the three services had its own General Staff.
OKW was a "wartime base camp" that gave overall strategic direction to the war, while coordinating the command of the various services of the army, navy and air force, when in fact this institution became a tool for the "Supreme Commander" Hitler to directly give orders around the Army General Staff.
After Germany's defeat in World War I, it was forbidden to have an air force and a navy, so the army's "general staff" was actually the number one head organ of the German army, and in the tradition of the army, the general command was not responsible for the formulation of battle plans and specific operational command, this work was the responsibility of the army general staff, so the army chief of staff was the most important person in the whole army.
Yodel
The establishment of the "General Staff" was originally one of the greatest inventions of the Prussian Army, and its essence was to change the decision-making mode of war from the "commander-in-chief decision-making type" to the "officer corps decision-making type", and even some people said that "the General Staff may be the greatest military creation of the 19th century", but Hitler completely trampled on and rudely destroyed this principle, and its means was to establish a separate high command.
In January 1933, German President Hindenburg appointed Hitler as Chancellor and authorized him to form a cabinet, and after Hindenburg's death in August 1934, Hitler served as President, renamed "Head of State and Reich Chancellor" and concurrently "Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces". In February 1938, Hitler declared himself supreme commander of the armed forces, marking the peak of his power, with the actual power to command the army, navy and air force, and in order to fully grasp the command of the armed forces, he immediately began to establish the so-called "Supreme Command".
To put it bluntly, the OKW established by Hitler became the de facto General Staff of the German Army in World War II, while the traditional Army General Staff basically became a decoration.
Kanaris
Under Hitler, the High Command set up the post of "Director of the High Command" (also translated as a senior officer), under the command of the War Department (Admiral Jodel), the Intelligence Department (Admiral Kanaris) and other units, responsible for grasping the overall situation of the war in Nazi Germany and the unified strategic deployment. Considering the fact that the German battlefield of World War II was mainly on the Eastern Front, the Army should dominate in all services, and the Air Force and Navy were responsible for cooperating, which was also the embodiment of the traditional Prussian "Army Determinism" view, so OKW should not interfere too much in the professional deployment and operational command of the Army General Staff.
Unfortunately, under Hitler's strong intervention, the relationship between OKW and the Army General Staff and the Prussian Officer Corps behind it became increasingly antagonistic, and the contradictions in the struggle for the command of the Army became more and more acute, especially the OKW and new forces such as Goering and Dönitz joined forces to try to strengthen the position of the Navy and Air Force, further weakening the functions of the Army General Staff. Most damningly, the operational command of the Army General Staff since Moltke no longer existed, and after the middle of the war, it was entirely based on Hitler's personal intuition for combat deployment. It is equivalent to the command system of the German army during World War II regressing to the "commander-in-chief decision-making type" before World War I.
Adolf hitler
Taking a step back, even if the professional soldiers of OKW can maintain their professionalism and integrity, they can also fight for the power they deserve for the Army General Staff, but THE OKW's director General Keitel almost became Hitler's "response worm", he unreservedly and completely obeyed Hitler, agreed to his removal of the meritorious generals, and even approved of the execution of many senior officers, and the only crime of these officers was failure to obey Hitler, and his absolute obedience made OKW hitler's "aide-de-camp". Disasters on the front lines have been greatly facilitated.
Before the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942, Keitel privately thought that the summer offensive might fail, but he did not dare to speak directly to Hitler. When the 6th Army was under siege, Keitel in turn supported Hitler's rejection of Manstein and Paulus' request for a breakout, and he protected his position in this way, even though he also knew that such a decision was dangerous.
It should be said that although Keitel was born in the German Army, he and his OKW became Hitler's accomplices in crushing the German Army, and finally he was stranded in 1946.
William Keitel
Therefore, during the Second World War, the existence of OKW made the German Army General Staff and the Prussian Officer Corps have a very limited impact on the fact of the war situation, while Goering's Air Force and Himmler's Waffen SS only obeyed OKW, thus constantly weakening the army's operational command, and Hitler finally achieved the situation of "layman leading the insider" through OKW. After the Battle of Stalingrad, Halder, chief of the Army General Staff, was relieved of his duties after a heated quarrel with Hitler, and soon afterwards the Army General Staff was told that its competence was limited to the Eastern Front, and that the affairs of the Army in other theaters were under the jurisdiction of OKW.
The point, then, is that Hitler not only made himself commander-in-chief of the Wehrmacht, but also divided the army as a whole through OKW, with the consequence that all operational departments lost their independent combat capabilities and all power was concentrated in Hitler's hands. He did not have the professional military literacy to support the operational command, thus accelerating the collapse of the German army on two fronts.