Amann, Max.

Amann, Max, born in Munich, on 24-11-1891, into a Catholic family. Max played for the German gold medal winning water polo teas at the 1928 Amsterdam/Olympic Games. He was also a European Champion in 1931, second in 1934, and third in 1926. With SC Hellas Magdeburg Amann earned German national tittles in 1924, 26, 1928-3, and 1933. Axmann added another German tittle swimming with the 4x 400 metly relay in 1924. He became a German Nazi official with the honorary rank of SS Obergruppenführer , politician and journalist. After leaving school he joined the German Army and during the First World War he was a sergeant in the 1st Company of the 16th Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment where he met Adolf Hitler and where he received the Iron Cross second classe .

         On 16-08-1914 Hitler volunteers for 16th Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment, also known as the List Regiment after its commander Oberst Alfred Julius Eduard List  . List was severely wounded in the chest at the beginning of his regiment’s three-day battle on 31-10-1914 at the three-day Battle of Gheluvelt and died the same day from his shrapnel injury in the park of Gheluvelt Castle. There he was buried, age 49, too. The regimental adjutant Hauptmann Friedrich “Fritz” Wiedemann

, will later be Hitler’s personal adjutant. Hauptmann Friedrich “Fritz” Wiedemann survived the war and died, age 78, on 17-01-1970 in Postmünster.

After the war ended, Amann, here with Kurt Daluege, chief of the national uniformed Ordnungspolizei (Order Police) ,went to business school but maintained contact with Hitler. Once Hitler declared his intentions of moving into politics, Amann one of earliest followers. As a protégé of Hitler, (see Hitler Paula) (Hitler parents)

(see William Hitler)

he joined the NSDAP, NSDAP-nr.: 3 on 01-10-1921  and became its chairman in 1922, Amann was really one of Hitler’s oldest, few, friends. He joined Hitler during the 1923 Munich Putz, Beer Hall Putsch, condened and was imprisoned with him for 4 and a half months in Landsberg. He was with Hitler on the Obersalzberg and typed the second part of his Mein Kampf on his typewritter. Amann proposed that Hitler should spend his time in prison writing his autobiography. Hitler, who had never fully mastered writing, was at first not keen on the idea. However, he agreed when it was suggested that he should dictate his thoughts to a ghostwriter. The prison authorities surprisingly agreed that Hitler’s chauffeur, Emil Maurice,  could live in the prison to carry out this task.Maurice, whose main talent was as a street fighter, was a poor writer and the job was eventually taken over by Rudolf Hess, a student at Munich University. Hess made a valiant attempt at turning Hitler’s spoken ideas into prose. However, the book that Hitler wrote in prison was repetitive, confused, turgid and therefore, extremely difficult to read. In his writing, Hitler was unable to use the passionate voice and dramatic bodily gestures which he had used so effectively in his speeches, to convey his message. The book was originally entitled Four Years of Struggle against Lies, Stupidity, and Cowardice. Amann reduced it to My Struggle (Mein Kampf). The book is a mixture of autobiography, political ideas and an explanation of the techniques of propaganda. Amann was the Nazi Party’s treasurer and in the 1920’s worked with Alfred Ernst Rosenberg on the Party’s newspaper “Völkischer Beobachter”. He also led the publishing company Eher Verlag. Amann’s most notable contribution to history was persuading Adolf Hitler´s  (did you know) Mein Kampf, which became a major source of Eher-Verlag’s income and of himself. It was Amann who suggested to Hitler that the title for his book written was awlward. What was originally titled “Four and a half years of struggle against lies, stupidity and cowardice” was changed to “Mein Kampf” on the advise of Amann. He ensured Hitler that he was very well financially for any article or publications. However he also ensured that he accured fortune at the same time. Amann income increased from 108,000 to 3,800,000 marks between 1934 and 1944.

  However, as a party official Amann lacked talent, being a poor speaker and debater. In addition, his handwriting was illegible, causing his chief of staff and deputy, Rolf Rienhardt, here on the left to perform these tasks for him. Bad handwriting can be partly attributed to the loss of his left arm in a firearm accident on 09-04-1931, while hunting with General der Infanterie Franz von Epp  . He a very greedy man, also published the SS magazine “Das schwarze Korps.” “The Black Corps”. He joined the SS-nr.: 53 143 on 15-03-1932.  After Hitler was appointed Chancellor on 30-01-1933, Amann was appointed Reichsleiter, Reichs Leader, of the entire Nazi Party press organisation as well as head of the Reichs Press Chamber. Amann was present in the Knight of the Long Knives Ernst Julius Röhm,

on 30-06-1934, when the murder action against the homosexuelle SA Gruppenführer, Edmund Heines 

took place, Amann was appointed as SS Obergruppenführer in 1936, for him only a honorary title. The Night of the Long Knives between 30 June and 2 July 1934 saw the killing of approximately 82 SA men, including almost its entire leadership, effectively ending the power of the SA.  .

During the Third Reich, Amann became also the largest newspaper publisher in Germany and made enormous profits off Nazism, however, as a party official, sergeant Amann lacked talent, was a poor speaker and debater, a bootlicker. His handwriting was illegible and was done by someone else.

Arrested by Allied troops after the war, Amann was found guilty of being a Prominent Guilty Party. Sentenced to ten years in a labor camp on 08-09-1948, but was released in 1953. He also lost his property and pension rights and died, four years after his release, in poverty on 30-03-1957, at the age of 55, in Munich. His son Rudolf died, age 22, in 1941.

Max had been married to Anna, born Frichs (1895–1993) since 03-02-1919. The marriage gave birth to seven children, five sons and two daughters. His eldest son Rudolf (born 01-12-1919 in Munich) signed up for tank troops in 1938, was promoted to leutnant on 01-04-1940 and took part in the “Barbarossa” operation as a tank commander in the 33rd Panzer Regiment of the 9th Panzer Division part. At the beginning of the eastern campaign, the division was subordinate to the XIV Army Corps in Army Group Center. Coming from Silesia, the division followed the German attack leaders and crossed the border to the Soviet Union at Annopol on June 28th. The first battles with Russian tanks took place near Zloszow. On 29-06-1941, Lieutenant Rudolf Amann was seriously wounded on the Eastern Front and died a short time later at the main dressing station. The fallen son is commemorated on the tombstone of his parents, his remains have not been recovered by the Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge (as of 2021).

Max Amann is buried on the Ostfriedhof in Munich  also with his son  and wife Anna and the opposite grave is of Hitler’s oldest secretary, Johanna Wolf    who died in 1984 at the old age of 84 and some steps further the man who wanted to kill Adolf Hitler, together with himself, but Hitler disappeared hasty at the moment supreme, Generalmajor der Kavallerie, Rudolf von Gersdorff   and also close by the graves of Nazi doctor SS Gruppenführer, Karl Gebhardt

   Waffen SS Gruppenführer, he stayed in the Führerbunker till the end, Johan Rattenhuber

   Nazi Banker, Hjalmar Schacht, Hitler’s adjutant, SS Obergruppenführer, Julius Schaub

  , SA leader, August Schneidhuber victim of the Night of the long Knives, Flyer Ace, Nachtjägerass, Kommandeur ./N.J.G.1, Werner Streib, SS Brigrade Führer, in charge of the SS and Police in the defence section of Metz, Anton Dunckern and Hitler’s secretary, Christa Schroeder in the urnhall.