Starting in 1933, the party office had its seat in Munich under the leadership of Adolf Hitler's Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess, who held the rank of a Reich Minister in the Hitler Cabinet.[lower-alpha 1] Hess's department was responsible for handling party affairs; the settling of disputes within the party and acting as an intermediary between the party and the state regarding policy decisions and legislation.[3] The organisation rivaled for influence not only with the Reich Chancellery under Hans Lammers but also with the Führer's Chancellery and the Nazi Gau- and Reichsleiter.[4] Typical of the Nazi regime in many regards, the Party Chancellery competed for spheres of interest with the other two chancelleries, creating several areas of functional duplication, additionally complicating "the relationship between party and state."[5]