Ministry of Aviation (Nazi Germany)  The Ministry of Aviation (), abbreviated RLM, was a government department during the period of Nazi Germany (1933–45). It is also the original name of the Detlev-Rohwedder-Haus building on the Wilhelmstrasse in central Berlin, Germany, which today houses the German Finance Ministry ("Bundesministerium der Finanzen"). The Ministry was in charge of development and production of all aircraft developed, designed and built in Germany during the existence of the Third Reich, overseeing all matters concerning both military and civilian designs — it handled military aviation matters as its top priority, particularly for the Luftwaffe. As was characteristic of government departments in the Nazi era, the Ministry was personality-driven and formal procedures were often ignored in favour of the whims of the Minister, "Reichsmarschall" Hermann Göring. As a result, early successes in aircraft development progressed only slowly and erratically during World War II. The Ministry was formed in April 1933 from the Reich Commissariat for Aviation ("Reichskommissariat für die Luftfahrt"), which had been established two months earlier with Göring at its head. In this early phase the Ministry was little more than Göring's personal staff. One of its first actions was to requisition control of all patents and companies of Hugo Junkers and Richard Wolfgang the German aeronautical engineer. These included all rights to the Junkers Ju 52 aircraft. Defence Minister General Werner von Blomberg decided that the importance of aviation was such that it should no longer be subordinate to the German Army ("Heer"). In May 1933 he transferred the army's Department of Military Aviation (the "Luftschutzamt"), to the Ministry. This is often considered the birth of the Luftwaffe. The Ministry was now much larger, consisting of two large departments: the military "Luftschutzamt" (LA) and the civilian "Allgemeines Luftamt" (LB). Erhard Milch, the former head of Deutsche Luft Hansa, was placed in direct control of the LA, in his function as Secretary of State for Aviation. In September 1933, a reorganization was undertaken to reduce duplication of effort between departments. The primary changes were to move the staffing and technical development organizations out of the LB, and make them full departments on their own. The result was a collection of six: "Luftkommandoamt" (LA), "Allgemeines Luftamt" (LB), "Technisches Amt" (LC, but more often referred to as the "C-amt") in charge of all research and development, but having no clear way of receiving and acting on requests from front-line combat personnel of the Luftwaffe during the war years, to improve their aviation and weapons technology as a "technical-tactical" department would do in other nations' military aviation bureaus, the "Luftwaffenverwaltungsamt" (LD) for construction, "Luftwaffenpersonalamt" (LP) for training and staffing, and the "Zentralabteilung" (ZA), central command.