Amann, Max

(1891-1957)

   publisher; among Hitler's* earliest and most devoted followers. Born in Munich, he was trained in business but had already elected a military career when World War I erupted. During the war he was sergeant-major in Hitler's regiment. After Germany's defeat he worked in a bank until Hitler persuaded him in 1921 to become the NSDAP's business manager. Dwarflike in stature, Amann was ruthless, dictatorial, and aggressive. Because of his faithfulness to Hitler, his station in the NSDAP steadily rose. In April 1922 he became general secretary of the Volkischer Beobachter,* the Party newspaper,* and director of the Munich-based Eher Verlag.

   Amann enjoyed Hitler's confidence, and despite a modest intellect and coarse manners, he was regularly assigned special duties. Although his participation in the November 1923 Beerhall Putsch* brought arrest, a sympathetic judge re-leased him with a fine of one hundred gold marks. In the months following the putsch, he formed with Julius Streicher* and Hermann Esser a circle of Hitler's staunchest supporters.

   Amann was remarkably effective as manager of Eher Verlag. Not only did he maintain the company's financial health during the Party's weakest years, but he established its publishing monopoly within the Nazi movement. As pub-lisher of Hitler's Mein Kampf (volume 1 in 1925, volume 2 in 1926, and a revised edition in 1929), he reaped profits that persevered into the depression* years. When Hitler became Chancellor, Amann was named Reichsleiter fur die Presse; indeed, he was an impediment to Joseph Goebbels'* efforts to gain control of Germany's press. Inflexible and greedy, he amassed enormous wealth, but lost everything through the postwar trials.

   REFERENCES:Benz and Graml, Biographisches Lexikon; Bracher, German Dictatorship; Hale, Captive Press; Layton, "Volkischer Beobachter."