Hi Jeff,
You have provided us with wonderful and detailed information, the kind of inter-Party stuff that I so enjoy reading! A sure sign of the coming demise of Ley's power appeared in May of 1941, when Martin Bormann moved to Berlin to inaugurate the new Party Chancellery Office as its Chief. (Prior to Hess' departure to Scotland, Hess headed the NSDAP apparatus out of the Brown House in Munich as Deputy Führer, with Bormann as his Chief of Staff.) This move put Bormann even closer to Hitler than Ley was. Up till then, the NSDAP's national machinery was located in Munich, while the Government sat in Berlin. When Bormann came to the New Reichschancellery as Chief of the Party Chancellery, this put him on equal ground with the Chief of the Reichschancellery (Dr. Lammers) and the Chief of the President's Chancellery (Dr. Meissner) and it also established the NSDAP's national offices as equal in importance to the two German State Offices. While Ley was a Reichsleiter, as Bormann was, and Organisationsleiter of the NSDAP, the focus of the Party's operational structure was switched in 1941 from Ley's office in Munich to Bormann's office in Berlin.
Br. James
You have provided us with wonderful and detailed information, the kind of inter-Party stuff that I so enjoy reading! A sure sign of the coming demise of Ley's power appeared in May of 1941, when Martin Bormann moved to Berlin to inaugurate the new Party Chancellery Office as its Chief. (Prior to Hess' departure to Scotland, Hess headed the NSDAP apparatus out of the Brown House in Munich as Deputy Führer, with Bormann as his Chief of Staff.) This move put Bormann even closer to Hitler than Ley was. Up till then, the NSDAP's national machinery was located in Munich, while the Government sat in Berlin. When Bormann came to the New Reichschancellery as Chief of the Party Chancellery, this put him on equal ground with the Chief of the Reichschancellery (Dr. Lammers) and the Chief of the President's Chancellery (Dr. Meissner) and it also established the NSDAP's national offices as equal in importance to the two German State Offices. While Ley was a Reichsleiter, as Bormann was, and Organisationsleiter of the NSDAP, the focus of the Party's operational structure was switched in 1941 from Ley's office in Munich to Bormann's office in Berlin.
Br. James
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