Date of birth:

December 21st, 1897 (Rosenheim/Bavaria, Germany)

Date of death:

August 22nd, 1943 (near Kharkiv/Kharkiv Oblast, Soviet Union)

Nationality:

German

In literature and documents, Franz Mayerhofer is called Franz Maierhofer. He is being comemmorated as Franz Mayerhofer.

Franz Mayerhof grew up in Regensburg as son of a civil worker. Before the First World War he was educated to be a teacher. At the start of that war he joined the army as a volunteer. He was wounded and becam Prisoner-of-war to the French in 1917. He was not released until 1920, where he started working as helping teacher in 1923. In 1925 he had his first occupation as a teacher in Auerbach, Upper-Palatinate. Franz Mayerhofer joined the NSDAP on 11th April 1927 and became Gauleiter of Gau Oberpfalz in 1929. He became a member of the Reichstag in 1930. When the Gau Oberpfalz and Gau Niederbayern were joined together on 1st April 1932, Mayerhofer became the Gauleiter of Gau Niederbayern-Oberpfalz. He was fired as teacher on 1st November 1932. On 13th January 1933 he was releaved of his duties as Gauleiter for he did not support the SA. November 1933 he joined the SS and became SS-Brigadeführer in 1936. With war becoming unavailable, Mayerhofer was drafted in the military just before the war.

In January 1940 he also became Leiter der Abteilung für kirchliche Angelegenheiten within the Bavarian Governmant. During the fightings on the eastern Front, Mayerhofer was promoted to Major in 1943.
Franz Mayerhofer was killed on 22nd August 1943, some 5 miles north of Kharkiv. A memorial in his name can be found at the Ostfriedhof cemetery in Garmisch, Germany.

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• Photo 1: Wilco Vermeer/Detlev Hackemesser
• Photo: Detlev Hackemesser/Wilco Vermeer
  
• - PATZWALL, K. & SCHERZER, V., Das Deutsche Kreuz 1941-1945, Verlag Klaus D. Patzwall, Norderstedt, 2001.
  - Die Ordensträger der Deutschen Wehrmacht (CD), VMD-Verlag GmbH, Osnabrück, 2002
  - Höffkes K., Hitlers politische Generale, Die Gauleiter des 3.Reiches, ein biographisches Nachschlagewerk, Grabert-Verlag, Tübingen, 1997, ISBN 3-87847-163-7
  - Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e.V.