Council of Ministers for Defense of the Reich


The Council of Ministers for Defense of the Reich was a Nazi German office created immediately before the beginning of World War II by Adolf Hitler on 30 August 1939, with the purpose of granting far-reaching powers to the defense administration and making it closer to the Nazi government.
The Council of Ministers was given the right to issue decrees "with the force of law" for the whole period "of the current foreign policy tension". Immediately after the outbreak of the war, they appointed 15 Gauleiters to the position of Reich defense commissioner in each of the military districts to organize civil defense and mobilization.

Members

The members of the Council were Hermann Göring, who served as its chairman; Rudolf Hess, as the representative of the Nazi Party; Wilhelm Frick, as the general representative of the Reich administration; Walther Funk, as the general representative of the Reich Ministry of Economic Affairs ; Wilhelm Keitel, as the Chief of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht; and Hans Lammers, as the head of the Reich Chancellery.