The _Reichsleiter_, of whom 16 are shown on the chart, made up the Party Directorate (_Reichsleitung_). Through them, coordination of party and state machinery was assured. A number of these _Reichsleiter_, each of whom, at some time, was in charge of at least one office within the Party Directorate, were also the heads of party formations and of affiliated or supervised organizations of the party, or of agencies of the state, or even held ministerial positions. The _Reichsleitung_ may be said to have represented the horizontal organization of the party according to functions, within which all threads controlling the varied life of the German people met. Each office within the _Reichsleitung_ of the NSDAP executed definite tasks assigned to it by the Fuehrer, or by the leader of the Party Chancellory (_Chef der Parteikanzlei_), who in 1945 was Martin Bormann and before him, Rudolph Hess.
It was the duty of the _Reichsleitung_ to make certain these tasks were carried out so that the will of the Fuehrer was quickly communicated to the lowliest _Zelle_ or _Block_. The individual offices of the _Reichsleitung_ had the mission to remain in constant and closest contact with the life of the people through the subdivisions of the party organization, in the _Gaue_, _Kreisen_, and _Ortsgruppen_. These leaders had been taught that the right to organize human beings accrued through appreciation of the fact that a people must be educated ideologically (_weltanschaulich_), that is to say, according to the philosophy of National Socialism. Among the former _Reichsleiter_ on trial in this cause are the following defendants:
_Alfred Rosenberg_—The delegate to the Fuehrer for Ideological Training and Education of the Party. (_Der Beauftragte des Fuehrer’s fuer die Ueberwachung der gesammten geistigen und weltanschaulichen Schulung und Erziehung der NSDAP_).
_Hans Frank_—At one time head of the Legal Office of the party (_Reichsleiter des Reichsrechtsamtes_).
_Baldur von Schirach_—Leader of Youth Education (_Leiter fuer die Jugenderziehung_).
_Robert Ley_—Leader of the Party Organization (_Reichsorganisationsleiter der NSDAP_) and Leader of the German Labor Front (_Leiter der Deutschen Arbeitsfront_).