(b) The establishment of newspapers by Party members or affiliated associations;
(c) The incorporation of newspapers into the Party press combine;
(d) The appointment of publishers and of their deputies;
(e) The termination or alteration of contracts with newspapers;
(f) The appointment of Commissars to supervise publishing houses. (2319-PS)
In addition to controlling the administration and finance of the National Socialist publishing houses in the Gau, the Press Leader headed the Zentralverlag, which was the central publishing house and holding company of the entire Party publishing machine and all its official organs, such as Der Voelkischer Beobachter, Der Angriff, Der SA Mann, Das Schwarze Korps, Die HJ, etc. (3016-PS)
It was one of the Reich Press Leader’s duties to turn all publishing by Party officials into a lucrative undertaking, and to set up an absolute monopoly in the publication of all political literature. To effectuate that objective, a decree was passed which made it mandatory for all “manuscripts which have National Socialist problems and subject matter as themes” to be offered first to Eher Verlag publication. (2383-PS)
The Reichsleiter fuer die Press, who was also president of the Reich Press Chamber, exercised economic controls over the entire German press. He made use of his position to expand the Party publishing machine at the expense of non-party newspapers. As president of the Reich Press Chamber, he was authorized to issue directives with the force of law. In that capacity he issued certain regulations which had the effect of prohibiting the ownership of newspapers by corporations of any kind, except the NSDAP or such groups as were approved by the Party. (2315-PS)
These decrees enabled Amann to close down one or more papers in a particular locality “to safeguard reasonable standards of competition.” They thus provided, along with racial and other discriminatory legislation, the “legal” basis for the pressure which was brought to bear on such publishing firms as Ullstein and other opposition publications, in order to force them to sell out to the Party. These sales were in no sense voluntary; the alternative in each case was total suppression. The authorizing decree provided:
“The President of the Reich Chamber of the Press will therefore endeavor at first in every individual case to effect agreements which will relieve him of the necessity of issuing orders for the closing of establishments.” (2315-PS)