Franz Hofer

Born to a Bad Hofgastein hotelkeeper, Hofer went to the Volksschule-Realschule in Innsbruck and in 1922 began a career as a freelance salesman. In September 1931, he joined the Nazi Party. He very quickly rose in the Party, becoming Kreisleiter (County Leader) in Innsbruck on April 1, 1932, and on July 1, Deputy Gauleiter of the Tyrol. Only four months later, on November 27, 1932 – Hofer's thirtieth birthday – he was promoted to Gauleiter of the Tyrol.[2]

For his activities in the Nazi Party, which was banned in Austria, Hofer was arrested in June 1933 and sentenced for treason by a Tyrolean court to 30 months in prison. On August 30, 1933, 4 armed SA men broke into Hofer's prison cell by force and freed him. He fled the prison amid gunfire, which wounded him in the knee. He made it to Italy, and only a few weeks later gave a speech at the Nuremberg Party Congress from his stretcher. In early 1937, having recovered from his gunshot wounds, Hofer became leader of the "Leaders' and Members' Political Gathering Place for Austrians in Germany", with a job in Berlin.

After the Anschluss of March 1938, he was elected to the Reichstag on April 10. Then on May 25, he was appointed the Gauleiter of the Tyrol and Vorarlberg. At the same time, he was made Landeshauptmann of Tyrol (though not of Vorarlberg). On November 9, 1939 he was promoted to the rank of NSKK-Obergruppenführer. On September 1, 1940 he was appointed the Reichsstatthalter (Reich Governor) of the Reichsgau of Tyrol-Vorarlberg. He thus united under his control the highest party and governmental offices in his jurisdiction. On November 16, 1942, he was appointed the Reich Defense Commissioner for his Reichsgau.[3]

After the Italian Armistice with the Allies Hofer was chosen on September 10, 1943 to be the Supreme Commissioner (Oberster Kommissar) of the newly established Operation Zone of the Alpine Foothills, consisting of the neighbouring Italian provinces of Belluno, South Tyrol and Trentino joined to his own Reichsgau of Tyrol-Vorarlberg.

Gauleiter Hofer was an accomplished marksman who often competed in regional and national shooting matches. In 1944 Hofer won a shooting competition in the city of Bolzano, qualifying him for the national competition which was held in Innsbruck that year. Using a specially crafted 22 cal Mauser rifle (serial #300354) Hofer finished 7th.

In November 1944, Hofer suggested in a memorandum to Adolf Hitler that an "Alpenfestung" ("Alpine Fortress") ought to be built up in the heart of the Alps as Nazi Germany's last bastion. Apparently Hitler's secretary Martin Bormann only brought this document to the Führer's attention early the next year. Hofer had a personal audience with Hitler in late January 1945.[4] 'Hofer reminded the German leader that the Allies dreaded the thought of continued fighting from an Alpenfestung. Considering the fact that the Ardennes Offensive had failed, Hitler was receptive to such an idea. The German leader authorized preparations to fortify the Alps.'[4] Hofer and his team actually started work on this in mid-February.[4] Hofer was called to Hitler's Berlin bunker again on April 12, 1945 to discuss further his proposal. Hitler – 18 days before his own suicide and still convinced that his Endsieg was possible – again approved Hofer's ongoing plan and appointed him Reich Defence Commissioner of the Alpenfestung.

On May 3, 1945 Hofer surrendered Innsbruck to American troops. This surrender was achieved by OSS agent Frederick Mayer.[5] It was not long before Hofer's freedom was curtailed. On May 6, 1945, he was arrested by the United States Army in Hall in Tirol and held in an internment camp. In October 1948, he managed to flee to Germany, where he continued his former trade as a salesman in Mülheim, first under an assumed name and then under his true name.

In June 1949, Hofer was tried in absentia and convicted of high treason by the People's Court in Innsbruck and was sentenced to death. The conviction was on the grounds that he had been a leading Nazi Party member and a key advocate for the Anchluss. Meanwhile in Germany, he was classified as a "major offender", tried by the High Court of Justice in Munich and sentenced to ten years in a labor camp in June 1949. In August 1952, he was re-tried in Munich and sentenced to 3 years and 5 months in labor prison, with credit for time already served. This sentence was upheld on appeal in July 1953. When interviewed by the press during this time, Hofer was unrepentant and declared an ongoing and fervent belief in Nazism.[6]

In 1964, a lawsuit brought by Hofer's children for the return of ownership of the Lachhof bei Hall where their father had lived while he was the Gauleiter, was dismissed by an Austrian court.

Hofer spent his later years in Mülheim an der Ruhr with his wife and seven children, continued his former trade as a salesman and died a natural death on February 18, 1975, under his real name.[7]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Franz Hofer (1902-1975).

• Newspaper clippings about Franz Hofer in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW