The political leadership ranks were as follows: Stützpunktleiter Ortsgruppenleiter Kreisleiter Stellvertreter Gauleiter Gauleiter Reichsleiter Further additions included the creation of several positional titles, which were not actual ranks but merely titles that a Nazi Party political leader could hold in addition to their own formal rank. There was at this time no outward system to denote these special titles, other than verbal and written correspondence. This would change in 1939 with the creation of the Nazi Party's armband system. The pre-war positional titles included: Blockleiter (Block Leader) Unterabteilungsleiter (Junior Section Leader) Abteilungsleiter (Section Leader) Zellenleiter (Cell Leader) The system of Nazi Party ranks adopted in 1934 would remain unchanged throughout the remainder of the 1930s. It was not until 1939, at the start of World War II, that Nazi Party ranks would change again for a final time. Nazi ranks during World War II The final pattern of Nazi Party ranks was designed in 1938 by Robert Ley, who personally oversaw the development of Nazi Party insignia through his position as Reichs Organisation Leader of the NSDAP, and put into effect in mid-1939. The new insignia pattern was a vast overhaul of previous designs beginning with a standardized set of twenty-eight Nazi Party ranks that were to be uniform across all levels of the Party. To denote membership in a particular "level" of the Nazi Party (local, county, regional, or national) collar tabs would display a particular color on which the actual rank insignia would then be displayed. This new design was intended to eliminate the manner in which different levels of the Nazi Party separated themselves and allow for command across all Party lines. For instance, an Abschnittsleiter (Section Leader) in the Ortsgruppen (local) level would now be seen as outranking and could issue directives to a junior rank, such as Arbeitsleiter (Work Leader) even if the junior rank served in a higher echelon of the Nazi Party, such as on the Gau (Regional) or Reich (National) level. The vast array of new ranks also allowed for a military appearance to the Nazi Party, in particular during World War II when political leaders were exempt for the conscription. More ranks also involved more opportunity for promotion and served as a means to distinguish highly successful political leaders from others who might hold the same position in the Nazi Party. Within each level of the Party, there was a cap