ishment of an independent air force. In May of 1933, the Reichs Minister of Defense announced that Paul von Hindenburg, President of the Reich, had authorized the establishment of an Air Ministry under the National Defense Ministry. Goering realized the significance of a strong and independent air force in any future war and set about assuring that such a unit was created. The Reichs Air Ministry now assumed the functions of a Luftwaffe High Command, and those selected from army and navy units to oversee this new group had to create the Luftwaffe from the ground up, a challenge none had ever faced in peacetime (Faber 10).
The Germans faced considerable difficulties in the creation of an air capability. No German air force had survived from the Great War except as a camouflaged planning stage within the army. In addition, the capacity for civil aircraft production was inadequate for military purposes. The success of the effort is apparent in the fact that within six years, the Luftwaffe was ready to go to war (Murray 3). The fact that Goering was Hitler's right-hand man was enormously important in the success of the Luftwaffe effort, for he had considerable political support for his ideas and his work. Funding was not a problem at the outset, but by the end of the 1930s, serious economic difficulties were having an impact on all the military services. However, this had the least impact on the Luftwaffe because of Goering's political clout. Goering also created problems because he refused to be subordinate to Minister of War Werner von Blomberg and went around the chain of command at every opportunity:
In the long run, Goering had a disastrous impact on the Luftwaffe's history and his position as number two in the political hierarchy prevented Hitler from removing him even after his many failures demanded such action (Murray 5).
The first intention was to build a strategic bombing fleet, but this was abandoned first ...