Gauleiters

[Michal78]

Portrait of Adolf Wagner.
Michal

[Michal78]

Who is on the photo with Gauleiter Hofer?
Michal

[Michael Miller]

I'm pretty sure those are the SA men who helped to spring Hofer from jail in Innsbruck, as described in the following excerpt from Hofer's biography in my GL manuscript and a "Time" magazine article, but I do not know who is who. Photo probably taken ca. September 1933; it appears Hofer is avoiding putting pressure on his left leg, due to the bullet injury he sustained in escaping from Austrian authorities.

30.08.1933 Freed from prison in Innsbruck when four armed SA men (Kohl, Klötzer, Siegfried Kustatscher, and Stahl) broke into his cell by force. While fleeing from the prison, he was wounded by gunfire (bullet in the knee). He managed to escape to Italy, eventually returning to Austria and staying in a hospital in Brixen. From there, Hofer- along with his parents and daughter- was flown to Nürnberg by Hitler’s personal pilot, Hans Baur."

Except from the 11.09.1933 issue of “Time” magazine:

“One midnight two men in the grey Norfolk jackets of the anti-Nazi Heimwehr drove up to the jail with a prisoner handcuffed between them.
‘Here is a dangerous Nazi who tried to escape over the border and shot a man!’ they shouted.
The Austrian guard peered through the gate. A dangerous Nazi the prisoner certainly was. The guard recognized him as Siegfried Kustatcher, who had served a prison sentence only a few weeks before. He opened the gates. The fake Heimwehr men suddenly dropped the handcuffs, snapped out blackjacks and sponges soaked in chloroform. Chief Warden Ludwig rushed down to help, was overpowered too. At pistol-point they snatched the keys from the warden's terrified wife, rushed Leader Hofer to a waiting automobile. In ten minutes every frontier post was warned. Shrewdly the Nazis did not make for the heavily-guarded Bavarian border, but for Italy, 20 miles away. On the Brenner Pass road an Austrian gendarme tried to stop them, was nearly run down, fired at the car, struck Nazi Hofer in the knee. At 5 a. m. the car was found abandoned three miles from the Italian frontier at Gries. Alpine troops and gendarmes searched the mountainsides with bloodhounds, to no avail.
Franz Hofer turned up safely over the border in Bolzano next morning. As soon as he was well enough to be moved he was lifted into a plane, flown back across Austria to safety in Bavaria.”

Best wishes,
~ Mike

P.S.~ Got your P.M. (thanks!) and will reply to it soon.

[Michal78]

Mike,
I think you are right...photo was taken in June 1933 after his Innsbruck adventure. Many thanks for your help.
Best regards,
Michal

[harmel]

Nice pic Michal,nice info Michael looking forward to the Book on Gauleiters.
Best Regards Harmel.

[Michal78]

Gauleiter Hartmann Lauterbacher.
Michal

[Phil Nix]

Gauleiter Hartmann Lauterbacher.
Michal

With Artur Axmann on his right
Phil Nix

[Michael Miller]

Possibly stellvertretender Gauleiter August Knop (minus the glasses he wears in his Reichstag handbook photo) to Axmann's right.

~ Mike

[Mark Costa]

Mike:

Not likely on Knop. The man in question is Kreis level based on the tabs and white piping of his collar and visor. Knop would be wearing red on the piping for gau level.

Mark

[Michal78]

Gauleiter Siegfried Uiberreither with couple of well-known faces.
Michal

[Michal78]

Gauleiter Emil Stürtz
and at right we see Brillanten-winner Hermann Graf

[Igor Karpov]

Gauleiter Emil Stürtz
and at hisleft Brillanten-winner Hermann Graf

Michal,

No, it's not. It is the Deputy Gauleiter of Berlin Artur Görlitzer.

Regards,
Igor

[Michal78]

Stürtz is behind him in the second row.
Michal

[Igor Karpov]

Stürtz is behind him in the second row.
Michal

Blimey! Sorry, Michal, it's him.

Regards,
Igor

[Wessel]

A couple of pages from the booklet "Das Fuhrerkorps Des Dritten Reiches."