A Führer Decree of 17 July 1941 provided for this move. It established Reichskommissariats in the east, as administrative units of the Greater German Reich. The structure of the Reichskommissariats was defined by the same decree. Each of these territories would be led by a German civil governor known as a Reichskommissar appointed by Hitler and answerable only to him. The official appointed for Ostland was Hinrich Lohse, the "Oberpräsident" and "Gauleiter" of Schleswig-Holstein. Local government in the Reichskommissariat was to be organized under a "National Director" ("Reichskomissar") in Estonia, a "General Director" in Latvia and a "General Adviser" in Lithuania.