General Karl Heinrich Emil Becker,[2] head of the Heereswaffenamt (HWA, Army Ordnance Office) and dean and professor in the faculty of defense technology[3] at the Technische Hochschule Berlin, was its president (1937 to 1940).[4][5] After Becker’s death in 1940, Rust took over as president of the RFR.[6] The vice-president was O. Wacker of the REM. In actuality, the direction of the RFR was carried out by Rudolf Mentzel, the president of the Deutsche Forschungs-Gemeinschaft (DFG, German Scientific Research Association), which, as of 1937, was the new name of the Notgemeinschaft der Deutschen Wissenschaft (NG, Emergency Association of German Science).