Under National Socialism, many political posts and positions in the civil service were reallocated. The Führer cult and the ideas of the National Socialist Party were structurally cemented at all levels. Innsbruck's mayor Franz Fischer was replaced by Egon Denz when the Nazis came to power. Edmund Christoph also replaced Governor Josef Schumacher (1894 - 1971) overnight, before Franz Hofer (1902 - 1975) took his place as Gauleiter in May 1938 and Reich Governor from 1940.

Franz Hofer was born into a family of hoteliers in Bad Hofgastein, Salzburg. After attending school in Innsbruck, he ran a radio business. He became a member of the NSDAP in Austria as early as 1931. When the National Socialist Party was banned in Austria, Hofer was imprisoned as its Gauleiter in 1933, but was freed by members of the SA. He was shot during this escape, but was able to flee to Italy. He then travelled to Germany, where he became a German citizen and had a stellar career within the party.

Shortly after the annexation of Austria, Hofer was appointed Gauleiter of Tyrol and Vorarlberg at Hitler's behest on 24 May 1938. In 1940, he was appointed Reich Governor of Tyrol-Vorarlberg. The plans of the leader-loyal Hofer were ambitious; Tyrol was a good breeding ground, if one excludes strict Catholics. Nowhere else in the Austrian districts were there more party members in proportion to the population than here. Hofer was already quite close to his goal of having the first completely Jew-free Gau in 1939. One year later, only one Jew was still registered in Tyrol. Hofer also generously enriched himself personally with aryanised assets. This is how the Villa Schindler of the operator of the Cafe Schindler at Rennweg 10 into his possession, as well as the Lachhof in Kleinvolderberg near Innsbruck, where he set up a kind of command centre outside the city.

Hofer, an anti-Catholic, also took action against church organisations. Wilten Boys' Choir were just as much a thorn in the flesh as the ubiquitous depictions of the Virgin Mary in Innsbruck. Socialist and communist organisations played no role in Tyrolean society and there was less need to be wary of them than of stubborn Catholics. All religious orders were closed and Catholic youth groups and associations were incorporated into the National Socialist system. 119 out of 570 priests were taken into custody at least once between 1938 and 1945, eleven were executed or did not survive the prison conditions.

When Italy finally came under German control in 1943, Hofer was appointed Supreme Commissioner of the Operational zone Alpine foothills appointed. This zone consisted of Tyrol-Vorarlberg and the Upper Italian provinces. It was also Franz Hofer who came up with the idea of the so-called Alpine fortress, the last bastion of the German people against the enemy. On 12 April 1945, less than a month before the end of the war, he personally submitted this proposal to Adolf Hitler, who then appointed him Reich Defence Commissioner of the Alpine fortress made.

made. After negotiations with the approaching Allied forces, Innsbruck was handed over as an open city without a fight on 3 May 1945 and thus spared the devastating fighting at the end of the war. Despite this sensible measure, Hofer remained a fanatical National Socialist even in defeat, as his speech on the radio on 30 April shows:

"However, should the enemy, despite heroic fighting, be at the gates of Innsbruck, a defence of the Gau capital under the given circumstances would by no means save the worst, but rather destroy the last.... But we want to claw our way into our mountains all the more tenaciously..."

Hofer was arrested a few days later. In October 1948, he escaped from the Dachau internment camp and fled to Germany, where he went into hiding in Mühlheim an der Ruhr under a false name. It is not certain, but quite possible, that the American and British secret services helped his former adversary to escape in order to protect their methods against National Socialism on Tyrolean soil, which were now in use against the Soviet Union, had they been openly discussed at a trial. In 1949, a court in Munich sentenced him in absentia to 10 years in prison. In July 1953, this judgement was confirmed in Munich, but the sentence was reduced to three years. However, Hofer remained at large due to the crediting of previous prison terms. A court in Austria sentenced him to death in 1949. However, he was not prosecuted. His advocates included the Bishop of Brixen, Johannes Baptist Geisler, and the Tyrolean governor Alfons Weißgatterer. His assets were confiscated by the Republic of Austria in proceedings in Innsbruck in 1950.

From 1954, Hofer lived in Germany under his real name. He ran the Ruhr Armatur GmbHa company specialising in sanitary equipment. Its participation in the Action T4 in Tyrol, the "Destruction of life unworthy of life"Although proceedings were initiated in court, the case was dropped in 1963. Despite his emigration, the former Gauleiter remained loyal to the province of Tyrol in the truest sense of the word until his death. Hofer was a lover of Tyrolean tradition. During his time in Tyrol, he promoted folk music, traditional costumes and Tyrolean marksmen. These associations were officially disbanded in 1938, but under his leadership they were reorganised in the Professional marksmen's association transferred. The leader of the Stadtmusikkapelle Wilten-Innsbruck, Sepp Tanzer, whom he appointed leader of the Department of Folk Music in the Reich Chamber of Music composed for him the Standschützenmarsch. At Hofer's funeral 30 years after the end of the war in Mühlhausen, a delegation of Tyrolean marksmen was present to pay their last respects to Hofer, who remained a staunch National Socialist until his death. The Tiroler Landhaus, which is still the seat of the Tyrolean provincial government today, was built under Hofer and is still a stone reminder of the Gauleiter of Tyrol.