Andreas Hofer (resistance fighter)

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Andreas Hofer (born August 24, 1915 in Innsbruck , † April 15, 1945 in Stein an der Donau ) was an Austrian Revier Oberwachtmeister of the protection police and resistance fighter against Hitler . Hofer was married, father of three and allegedly a great-grandson of the Tyrolean freedom fighter of the same name .

Youth and education

Andreas Hofer was born in Innsbruck as the son of a gendarmerie officer . He visited after the service in the Austrian army , the gendarmerie school and entered after the seizure of power of the Nazis over to police. He did military service for four months but returned on medical grounds.

Activity in resistance

During his deployment in the Eastern Territories, he learned of the atrocities committed against Jews and partisans. In Vienna he came into contact with Walter Caldonazzi and joined his resistance group , which had the aim of gathering members from the various political camps and forming an independent, monarchistically governed state of Austria including Bavaria and South Tyrol. This resistance group around Walter Caldonazzi, the chaplain Heinrich Maier and the general director of the Semperitwerke Franz Josef Messner is described as "perhaps the most spectacular individual group of the Austrian resistance". Their aim was to bring about the end of the regime of terror through a military defeat as quickly as possible and to restore a free and democratic Austria. For example, by making contact with the Western Allies, their air strikes were directed at military targets and the civilian population was spared. So the exact drawings of the V-2 rocket , the production of the Tiger tank and other things could be passed on. Exact sketches of the location and production figures of steel works, weapons, ball-bearing and aircraft factories were also sent to Allied general staffs.

Hofer also planned the arming and liberation of prisoners of war and, together with Caldonazzi, distributed feverish drugs to the Wehrmacht - or SS soldiers who were facing a military investigation or who wanted to avoid being drafted into the Wehrmacht. By injecting such substances - including himself - he tried to prevent his relocation to the front.

death

Hofer was arrested on February 28, 1944 and, along with other members of the resistance group, sentenced to death by the People's Court on October 28, 1944 for "preparing for high treason ", " favoring the enemy " and " undermining military strength " . A pardon from Hofer's wife to Attorney General Johann Karl Stich on April 5, 1945 remained unanswered. At the beginning of April 1945 Andreas Hofer and other prisoners were transferred to the Stein near Krems prison, which was empty after the massacre in the Stein prison, because of the advancing Soviet troops , and were shot by SS men in the prison yard there on April 15, 1945 .

Memorials

  • In 1946, a stone plaque with the inscription “To commemorate the police officers murdered by the National Socialist terror for Austria's freedom” was unveiled in the Federal Police Headquarters in Vienna on Parkring, including Andreas Hofer, along with twelve others. When the authorities moved in 1974, the memorial plaque was placed in the new building on Schottenring.
  • At the Liberation Monument in Innsbruck Hofer's name is in the list "Those who died for Austria's freedom."

Remarks

  1. ↑ Horst Schreiber , Christopher Grüner (Hrsg.): Those who died for the freedom of Austria: The liberation monument in Innsbruck. Processes of remembering. Universitätsverlag Wagner, Innsbruck 2016, p. 72.
  2. ↑ a b People's Court: Judgments 5 H 96/44 - 5 H 100/44 and reasons for the judgment . Vienna October 28, 1944, p. 4 ( online on the DÖW website [PDF; 7.6 MB ]).
  3. ↑ Fritz Molden : The fire in the night. Victims and meaning of the Austrian resistance 1938–1945 . Amalthea, Vienna 1988, p. 122.
  4. ^ Franz Loidl : Kaplan Heinrich Maier - a victim of the National Socialist system of violence in: Herbert Schambeck (Ed.): Church and State. Fritz Eckert on his 65th birthday . Duncker & Humblot, Vienna 1976, pp. 271-292.
  5. ↑ Peter Broucek : Military Resistance: Studies on the Austrian state sentiment and National Socialist defense . Böhlau Verlag , Vienna 2008, ISBN 978-3-205-77728-1 , The Austrian Identity in Resistance 1938–1945, pp. 163 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  6. ↑ Hellmut Butterweck : National Socialists before the Vienna People's Court: Austria's struggle for justice 1945–1955 in contemporary public perception . StudienVerlag, Innsbruck / Vienna 2016, ISBN 978-3-7065-5480-0 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  7. ^ Memorial plaque (Federal Police Directorate Vienna). In: www.nachkriegsjustiz.at. Retrieved December 3, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Hofer, Andreas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian resistance fighter against National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH August 24, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH innsbruck
DATE OF DEATH April 15, 1945
Place of death Stein on the Danube