Johann Hofer

“ On the 13th of August, in another battle on the Iselberg, the French under Marshal Lefebvre were routed by the Tirolese peasants, and Hofer once more entered Innsbruck, which he had some difficulty in saving from sack. Hofer was now elected Oberkommandant of Tirol, took up his quarters in the Hofburg at Innsbruck, and for two months ruled the country in the emperor’s name. He preserved the habits of a simple peasant, and his administration was characterized in part by the peasant’s shrewd common sense, but yet more by a pious solicitude for the minutest details of faith and morals. ”

“ The French in overpowering force at once pushed into the country, and, an amnesty having been stipulated in the treaty, Hofer and his companions, after some hesitation, gave in their submission. On the 12th of November, however, urged on by the hotter heads among the peasant leaders and deceived by false reports of Austrian victories, Hofer again issued a proclamation calling the mountaineers to arms. The summons met with little response; the enemy advanced in irresistible force, and Hofer, a price once more set on his head, had to take refuge in the mountains. ”

“ Let us consult and deliberate, then, my friends, what we should do in order to attain our great object, and reunite the Tyrolese with their emperor."
"Yes, let us, consult," said Hofer, solemnly; "and let us pray God and the Holy Virgin to enlighten our minds."
He raised the crucifix from his breast to his face and bent over it, muttering a prayer.
"Now I am ready," he said, slowly dropping the crucifix; "let us deliberate. But I tell you beforehand, I am no military hero, nor a wise man in council. ”

“ Another leader, Joachim Haspinger, a Capuchin monk, nicknamed Redbeard, a man of much military talent, withdrew to his monastery at Seeben. Hofer was left alone of the Tyrolese leaders. While the French advanced without opposition, he took refuge in a cavern amid the steep rocks that overhung his native vale, where he implored Heaven for aid. ”

“ The whole of the Tyrol again rose, and many of the Austrian soldiers deserted their banners to join the peasantry. The hopes of the patriots were now high, and they resolved to close their passes against the French and the Bavarians.
Hofer is no silken hero. Many portions of his character militate against the laws of romance; he had the German defects joined to their nobler qualities. He was born in the station of an innkeeper, a position rather of distinction in the Tyrol, since bringing the publican into contact with travellers, he acquires knowledge and civilisation. ”

“ God will protect the right!" he led his forces so irresistibly that the troops of Marshal Lefèbre gave way and evacuated the town. On the following day, August 15th, which was the fête of the Blessed Virgin, 46 Hofer, at the head of his victorious peasants, made his third entry as victor into the capital.
Around him thronged the citizens, overcome with transports of joy, pressing him so closely that many were trampled beneath his horse's feet. In the enthusiasm, relief, and triumph of victory, Hofer was named with one voice dictator of Tyrol. ”

“ In the end Hofer returned to St. Leonard raised to the dignity of Commander-in-Chief of the national forces, and with full powers to do what he deemed best in the interests of the country.
What he did not, however, secure was any support from Vienna in the form of arms or disciplined troops with which to leaven his "ragged coats." The courage of the men who entered upon a campaign against trained and tried soldiers armed with the most up-to-date weapons of those times can scarcely be estimated just as it most certainly cannot be over-praised. ”

“ The consequence was, that when their own neighborhood became the theatre of military operations between Austria and France, in the spring of 1809, a general insurrection broke out in the Tyrol. His resolution of character, natural eloquence, and private influence as a wealthy citizen, joined to a figure of great stature and strength, pointed out Andreas Hofer to his countrymen as the leader of this revolt ”

“ Then the castle of Schönna, magnificently situated at the entrance of the Passeier valley, now in possession of Archduke John's son, the Count of Meran, and many [16] others scarcely less remarkable. But exceeding all other spots in interest is the Sandwirthshof, the birthplace and home of Andreas Hofer, the pure noble-hearted patriot whom Napoleon—to his everlasting shame—condemned to death and caused to be shot in Mantua on the 20th of February, 1810. ”

“ This brave innkeeper of Innsbruck, who had fought so bravely to free his people, had been betrayed by a friend to Napoleon and shot in Mantua, over the mountains.
The Queen wept tears of sorrow when she heard of this sad tragedy.
"What a man," she had written, "is this Andreas Hofer, the leader of the Tyrolese. ”

“ In came Hofer and gave us a toast and a song, and then they called on me, and I gave them the old Lied, that thou hast so often played, and for a toast, 'Fifine.' If Fifine had been there she would have been lying on my shoulder, but since I rescued her from the teasing of a big drum-major she has grown shy and doesn't like company; and though she would soon be a pet with most of our men, keeps her love for me alone, and would be a very charming companion if I had time to devote to her pretty ways.' So you see Franz and Hofer are in France," says the old man, taking off his spectacles. ”

“ The defeat of Austria at Wagram by the French caused a demand that the Austrians should evacuate Tyrol, and though three separate armies were sent against them, Hofer and his brave countrymen routed them all, and Tyrol declared herself free, formed an independent government, and Hofer was declared absolute Dictator.
For some time the Tyrolese fought against a superior foe. In the last battle the women bore arms alongside the men, and nearly four hundred were killed by the enemy's cavalry; but finding resistance vain, Hofer disbanded his forces. ”

“ A dense crowd was assembled in front of the tavern; it was incessantly cheering and shouting: "Andreas Hofer! Come out! Long live the commander-in-chief of the Tyrol, the liberator! We want to see him, we must thank him for delivering us from the enemy. Andreas Hofer! Andreas Hofer!"
"You cannot get around it, Andy; you must step out on the balcony," said Niederkircher, stepping back from the window. "The people are perfectly beside themselves with love and enthusiasm, and will not keep quiet until you come out and make a speech to them. Do, my friend, step out on the balcony!" ”

“ Hofer whisked her one night,—a club where the best of Bohemia met the more intellectual members of society; and she knew that in these groups she might find also the higher class business and professional men, and a few of leisure that enjoyed life without either dancing or drinking. But Mrs. Hofer, although far too well satisfied with life and herself to be a snob, loved brilliancy, splendor, constant excitement, dancing, chatter ”

“ During dinner we noticed a man pacing about the garden below. He was Walter Andreas Hofer, who had been Göring’s agent and adviser in art matters. A shrewd and enterprising Berlin dealer before the war, Hofer had succeeded in ingratiating himself with the Reichsmarschall. He, more than any other single individual, had been responsible for shaping Göring’s taste and had played the stellar role in building up his priceless collection of Old Masters. ”

“ If Hofer had to paint frescos to-day, the problems of form would not be the only thing to interest him.
At least, the earnestness of these days has not done harm to German art. After the parroting of the last generation, it is trying to get into its own sphere. The road there leads through labyrinths. Discipline—a too facile concept with us Germans—is not an absolute protection. Success depends upon more elementary conditions. We shall gain an art if we succeed in rescuing our humanity from the ruins of Europe. ”

“ In these circumstances an innkeeper must be a strong man, mentally and physically, to succeed, for if he cannot rule his own passions, and is too weak to enforce his authority, he will soon go under. The Passeir or Pusterthal valley, in which young Hofer was brought up, is one of the most important in the country, extending from Lienz to Mulbach, a distance of nearly ten miles. ”

“ But he was always thinking, thinking, thinking, for all that; and under his little sheepskin winter coat and his rough hempen summer shirt his heart had and much courage in it as Hofer’s ever had,—great Hofer, who is a household word in all the Innthal, and whom August always reverently remembered when he went to the city of Innspruck and ran out by the foaming water-mill and under the wooded height of Berg Isel. ”

“ On one occasion Hofer had recommended an exchange of half a dozen paintings of secondary importance for two of the very first quality. As I recall, the deal involved a group of seventeenth century Dutch pictures on the one hand, and two Bouchers on the others. Hofer had been able to reel off the names of all of them and even give the price of each. It was just such feats of memory, they said with a laugh, that made his vague and indefinite answers [134] to certain other questions seem more than merely inconsistent. ”

“ Run, then, my daughter, run along the mountain-paths; you can climb and leap like a chamois, and will easily get the start of the enemy, who is marching on the long roads in the valley. Hasten toward Sterzing. If all has passed off as agreed upon, you will find Andreas Hofer there. Tell him now in my name that the Austrians are coming up from Salzburg and that I have done my duty and redeemed my pledge. Tell him further that the whole Puster valley is in insurrection, and that we are bravely at work, and driving the Bavarians and French from the country. ”

“ Thank God!" said Hofer.
"Thank God," said Speckbacher, "I feel I've done right."
"Rely on it. The wonder to me, brother, is, that you could ever have been over-persuaded. What! is our love of our country a mere dream? How many have already laid down their lives for it! For my part, I can die for freedom, but I cannot live a slave. Will Austria, think you, be angry in her heart, that we continue the defence of the cause? On the contrary, she will secretly rejoice in every success. ”

“ After Aspern, the Emperor Francis promised that he would never lay down his arms until they were re-united with his Empire. This promise now went the way of the many fond hopes of reform and championship of German nationality which her ablest men had lately cherished, and the Empire settled down in torpor and bankruptcy. In dumb wrath and despair Austrian patriots looked on, while the Tyrolese were beaten down by French, Bavarian, and Italian forces. Hofer finally took to the hills, was betrayed by a friend, and was taken to Mantua. ”

“ Day by day, week by week, month by month a general rising of the community was being gradually organized by three men more particularly, who were each of them destined to become famous, and to go down to posterity as the saviours of their country. Of these Andreas Hofer, born of Inn-keeping parents at Sandyland in the Passeyer Valley in 1765, was destined to outshine both in his life and death his two companions, named Speckbacher, born at Rinn, and Haspinger, the tall, red-bearded Capucin monk, known respectively as "the fire-devil" and "the red beard." ”

“ The task that Hofer and his companions set themselves was no easy one. The country swarmed not only with the soldiers of the Bavarian occupation force, but with spies who seem always to spring up whenever the price of treachery is worth earning. The punishment for men taking part in any such schemes as that in which Hofer, Speckbacher, and Haspinger and their faithful companions were engaged in was death. Death not only for the principals, but death for the humblest participant. ”

“ It was in these men that Hofer found his greatest allies and ablest assistants. During the three years which succeeded the Bavarian occupation and the peasant rising, the innkeepers of Tyrol were busy gathering round them small bodies of trusted men, who, fired by a common desire to free their country, would, indeed, have suffered death rather than betray a single word of the secret arrangements of which they gradually became cognizant. ”

“ When we were shown the palace of the prince-royal of Bavaria, at Inspruck, they told us that Hofer, the courageous peasant and head of the insurrection, had lived there; they gave us an instance of the intrepidity shown by a female, when the French entered into her chateau: in short, every thing displayed in them the desire of being a nation, much more than personal attachment to the house of Austria. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Lefebvre marched into it with forty thousand men, and an army of Saxons, who had to bear the brunt of the fighting. Hofer and his comrades, Spechbacher, Joachim Haspinger, and Schenk, the host of the "Krug" or "Jug," again roused the country, and destroyed or drove back the Saxons; and when Lefebvre himself appeared near Botzen with all his concentrated forces, they compelled him also to retire from the Tyrol with terrible loss. The French and Saxons were pursued to Salzburg, many prisoners being taken by the way. Hofer was then appointed governor of the Tyrol. ”