Justus Hashagen

“ HORMAYR, JOSEPH, Baron von (1782–1848) , German statesman and historian, was born at Innsbruck on the 20th of January 1782. After studying law in his native town, and attaining the rank of captain in the Tirolese Landwehr, the young man, who had the advantage of being the grandson of Joseph von Hormayr (1705–1778) , chancellor of Tirol, obtained a post in the foreign office at Vienna (1801) , from which he rose in 1803 to be court secretary and, being a near friend of the Archduke John, director of the secret archives of the state and court for thirteen months. ”

“ In 1803 he married Therese Anderler von Hohenwald. During the insurrection of 1809, by which the Tirolese sought to throw off the Bavarian supremacy confirmed by the treaty of Pressburg, Hormayr was the mainstay of the Austrian party, and assumed the administration of everything (especially the composition of proclamations and pamphlets) ”

“ But his history of the Tirolese rebellion is far from being impartial; for he always liked to put himself into the first place, and the merits of Andreas Hofer and of other leaders are not sufficiently acknowledged. In his later writings he appears as a keen opponent of the policy of the court of Vienna.
The following are among Hormayr’s more important works: Geschichte des Grafen von Andechs (1796) ; Lexikon für Reisenden in Tirol (1796) ; Kritisch-diplomatische Beiträge zur Geschichte Tirols im Mittelalter (2 vols., Innsbruck, 1802–1803, new ed., 1805) ; Gesch. der gefürst. ”