Gebhard Hinteregger

This is the story of Gebhard Hinteregger. His construction company built the Gauhaus. Hinteregger benefitted from the construction boom in the Nazi era – and knew how much to ask for.

The firm G. Hinteregger & Söhne started out as a carpenter’s business in Bregenz in 1882. Gebhard Hinteregger received his master builder’s certificate in 1914. In 1927 he was awarded his first major contract in Innsbruck, for the construction of the top station of the Patscherkofel cable car, and set up a branch office in the city. Hinteregger’s qualifications for the construction of the Gauhaus included years of experience in the building trade, local knowledge – and a long-standing commitment to National Socialism – even after the NSDAP was banned in 1933. He was considered “one of the most active illegal National Socialists”. Because of his Nazi activities, his house was searched and he was arrested at the end of January 1934. Among other things, the police found two Nazi postcards.

After his release, he founded a construction company in Munich in 1935, as he hoped for more public contracts in the “capital of the movement”. It was a successful businessman who returned to his homeland in 1938.

Gauleiter Franz Hofer was a close acquaintance of Hinteregger and trusted him in financial matters. Without checking the invoices, the authorities approved large payments in advance. Several times Hofer signed off on major increases in costs.

After 1945 Hinteregger was imprisoned in Paris. This was because of his building activities for the German Wehrmacht and his Paris office in an expropriated apartment. It was not until 1949 that he returned to Munich. The four-year break did little harm to his success as a businessman. In fact his company emerged stronger from the Nazi era – with the help of massive exploitation of forced labour.