the civil service. The Transport Ministry became subject to the "Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service" on April 7, 1933. As a result, all Jewish employees and political opponents were dismissed or forced to retire. Civil servants already employed in 1914 or who had fought at the front in World War I were initially spared. The Reichsbahn, which would not come under formal government authority until 1937, was not obliged to apply the law. However, it implemented the measure anyway, with exceptions granted for employees whose technical skills were thought indispensable. RVM organization also changed during this period. The aviation department was transferred to the Reich Air Ministry, established under Hermann Göring on May 5, 1933. The Motor Transport and Shipping Department was rearranged when Ulrich Stapenhorst left to take up the position of District President of Hannover. Former aviation head Ernst Brandenburg took over Motor Transport and Erich Klausener was appointed Director of Maritime Shipping. The RVM remained sidelined from construction of the largest single Nazi transportation project: the Autobahn. In July 1933, Fritz Todt was directly appointed by Adolf Hitler to build the huge road system quickly, and Transport Minister Paul Freiherr von Eltz-Rübenach thought it prudent not to complain at this obvious bypass of his authority. As was typical of regime, policies were fractured between strong personalities in differing agencies, creating both vertical and horizontal conflicts. On 24 June 1934, Maritime Director Klausener delivered a passionate speech at the Catholic Congress in Berlin that was critical of Nazi repression of the church. Viewed as an open challenge to the regime, Klausener was shot inside the Ministry building six days later during the Night of the Long Knives. SS officer Kurt Gildisch, who carried out the assassination on the direct orders of Reinhard Heydrich, was promoted in rank to SS-Sturmbannführer. The act also served to intimidate remaining critics of the regime at the Ministry into silence. Max Waldeck was appointed in Klausener's place. During this period the RVM was organized as follows: Gleichschaltung and the Reichsbahn merger Between mid-1933 and 1937 the Reich government instituted the policy of , loosely translated as "synchronization" or "bringing into line." This was a process by which the state began establishing totalitarian control over all aspects of the public sector. A primary example of this occurred in 1934, when the RVM took over the Association of German Transport Authorities