Hans Lamm was the second son of the Swabian-Jewish entrepreneur Ignaz Lamm, who had settled in Munich with his wife before the First World War, where Lamm Sr. ran a metal foundry. After completing his qualifications at the Luitpold-Oberrealschule, Lamm embarked on a law and journalism degree at the University of Munich in 1932, but soon had to discontinue his studies due to the anti-semitic policies of the National Socialists. From then on, Lamm worked as a journalist for various Jewish newspapers and was active in the Israelite Religious Community of Munich. In 1937/38, he studied at the Higher Institute for Jewish Studies in Berlin before following his brother into exile. In the USA, Lamm completed a degree in sociology and social work and was employed by various Jewish organizations. He was granted US citizenship in 1944.
Straight after the cessation of hostilities, he traveled to Germany on behalf of the American Jewish Conference to report on the situation of Jewish survivors and to improve their plight. From 1946 to 1952 he was an interpreter at the main Nuremberg trial and at the subsequent Nuremberg trials as well as for the US Court of Restitution Appeals. Lamm also completed a dissertation entitled 'On the Internal and External Development of German Jewry in the Third Reich,' for which he was awarded his doctorate in Erlangen in 1951. After another stay in the USA, Lamm returned to Germany for good in 1955 to participate in the reconstruction of Jewish life and democratic renewal: as Commissioner for Cultural Affairs of the Central Council of Jews in Germany (1955-1960), as executive member of the Munich Adult Education Center (1961-1978), and as a journalist, columnist, and founder of the Judaica publishing house Ner-Tamid in Munich, which published the first account of the city's Jewish history before 1945 in 1958(On Jews in Munich. A Book of Remembrance). As President of the Israelite Religious Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria (1970-1985) and trustee of the Society for Christian-Jewish Cooperation (1967-1985), Lamm also made a decisive contribution to reconciliation between Jewish and non-Jewish Germans. He was awarded the Bavarian Order of Merit in 1977, the 'Munich Shines' medal in 1978, and the Federal Cross of Merit in 1981.
