Albert Hoffmann (Gauleiter) - Nazi Career 1933-1945

Nazi Career 1933-1945

Shortly after Adolf Hitler's seizure of power, Hoffmann gave his profession up and first held functions in the NSDAP's Bremen District Leadership, until he was appointed Political Leader on Rudolf Hess's staff in 1934 and went to work at the Brown House in Munich. In 1936, Hoffmann joined the SS. He was appointed Stillhaltekommissar for Austria and later also in the Sudetenland and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, which mainly involved taking care of property law matters. At the same time, he was responsible for building up the Party in the aforesaid areas.

Hoffmann participated actively in the Invasion of Poland. In 1941, while retaining his other functions, he was also made acting Gauleiter of Upper Silesia, and also gained a seat in the Reichstag as the next candidate on the list. From 1942 he undertook, as Martin Bormann's representative on the OKW's Unruh staff, personnel examinations in the service posts in the occupied eastern territories and Ukraine. In 1943 came Hoffmann's appointment to Gauleiter of Westphalia-South. In the same year, Hoffmann was appointed by Joseph Goebbels to manage his Reich Inspection for Civil Aerial Warfare Measures. Hoffmann, who did not enjoy widespread popularity even within the Nazi Party's top ranks owing to his arrogance and bossy manner, was said to have been a staunch Nazi right through to the war's end. Shortly before the war ended, in April 1945, Hoffmann dissolved the NSDAP and the Volkssturm in Westphalia-South and went into hiding.