Two men place a poster of Adolf Hitler in Mecklenburg, Germany, before elections in 1932. Photographer unknown. From the Deutsches Bundesarchiv. texag57

Election of 1932

Joseph Berchtold took over from Julius Schreck as SS Leader.  He was a Second Lieutenant in WW1 and an early Party/SA member.  However, he proved unequal to the task of resisting pressure from the SA, which had woken up to the fact that this "subordinate" formation might pose a threat to its power.  After about 2 years, he ceded the office of "leader" to Conrad Heiden.  Strangely , he turned out to be the only SS "Leader who managed to survive the war (he might well have been treated as "unfinished business" at some stage.  He died peacefully in the 1960s.  Best regards, JR.

Second SS Leader.

No, not Hitler, but his companion here, Dr (Horace Greeley)Hjalmar Schacht (I kid you not), Hitler's Minister for Economics, 1934-'37.  Hjalmar Schacht's "creative" approach to State borrowing and trade agreements (in this case, strangely integrated) was vital to the launching of the Nazi "economic miracle" on a tide of distinctly funny money.  For some reason, this sounds familiar ... Schacht fell from influence due to his objections to the "inflationary" policy of rearmament.  This brought him into conflict with Goering, "Plenipotentiary of the Four-Year Plan".  Hitler's backing for rearmament as a priority signalled Schacht's defeat in this (typically Nazi) internal battle.  He was retained as "Minister without portfolio" in Hitler's cabinet but, after 1937, had at best a modest influence on German economic policy.  Best regards, JR.