Franz Hofer Franz Hofer ( November 27 , 1902 in Bad Hofgastein – February 18 , 1975 in Mülheim an der Ruhr ) was , in the time of the Third Reich , the Nazi Gauleiter of the Tyrol and Vorarlberg . As the Nazi party chief for the Tirol / Vorarlberg province he was the most powerful figure in the region . As the area ' s supreme Nazi , Hofer dealt directly with Hitler or with the Führer ' s deputy , Martin Bormann . Hofer was not only the party chief but the Reichskommissar in charge of the Tirol - Vorarlberg defences . His region embraced much of the suspected National Redoubt . Indeed Hofer might well be considered the father of the Redoubt . Born to a Bad Hofgastein hotelkeeper , Hofer went to the Volksschule - Realschule in Innsbruck and in 1922 began a career as a freelance sales man . In September 1931 , he joined the NSDAP . He very quickly rose in the Party , becoming District Leader in April 1932 , and in July of the same year acting Gauleiter of the Tyrol . Only four months later , on 27 November 1932 – Hofer ' s thirtieth birthday – he was promoted to Gauleiter of the Tyrol . For his activities in the Nazi Party , which was banned in Austria , Hofer was arrested in June 1933 and sentenced by a Tyrolean court to two years in prison . On 30 August 1933 , however , four armed SA men broke into Hofer ' s prison cell by force and freed him . He fled the prison amid gunfire , which wounded him . He made it to Italy , however , and only a few weeks later gave a speech at the Nuremberg Party Congress from his stretcher . In early 1937 – Hofer had by now recovered from his gunshot wounds – he became leader of the " Leaders ' and Members ' Political Gathering Place for Austrians in Germany " , with a job in Berlin . After Anschluss , he was once again appointed the Gauleiter of the Tyrol and Vorarlberg . In the same year , he was given the function of ministerial adviser and the rank of NSKK Obergruppenführer . On 1 September 1940 he was furthermore made the governor ( " Reichsstatthalter " ) of the " Reichsgau " of Tyrol - Vorarlberg . After Italy forsook the Axis Powers , Hofer was chosen on 10 September 1943 to be the Supreme Commissar in the 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 Bozen . This qualified him for the national competition which was held in Innsbruck of the same year . Hofer used a specially crafted 22 cal Mauser rifle ( serial # 300354 ) finishing 7th . In November 1944 , Hofer suggested in a memorandum to Adolf Hitler that an " " Alpenfestung " " ( " Alp 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 , leading to Hofer ' s being called to Hitler ' s Berlin bunker only on 12 April 1945 to present his proposal . Hitler – 18 days before his own suicide and still convinced that his " Endsieg " was possible – approved Hofer ' s plan and appointed him Reich Defence Commissar of the " Alpenfestung " . On May 3 , 1945 Hofer surrendered to American troops . This surrender was achieved by OSS agent Frederick Mayer . It was not long , however , before Hofer ' s freedom was curtailed . On 6 May 1945 , he was arrested by the United States Army in Hall in Tirol and held in an internment camp . In 1948 , he managed to flee to Germany , where he continued his former trade as a salesman in Mülheim , in the end under his true name . In Austria , Hofer was sentenced " in absentia " in June 1949 to death . In July 1953 , a Munich appeal court upheld a sentence of 3 years and 5 months in labour prison . When interviewed by the press during this time , Hofer made it known that his National Socialist convictions were unbroken . 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 .