When Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist party came to power in 1933 the ground work laid by the Reichsmarine and the Weimar Republic government was reversed. Hitler appointed his close associate Hermann Göring, a Nazi supporter, ally of Hitler, World War I flying ace and the holder of the Orden Pour le Mérite, as National Kommissar for aviation. Former Deutsche Luft Hansa director Erhard Milch was appointed deputy.