Georg Frauscher

This is the story of Georg Frauscher. As the caretaker in the Landhaus, he held a seemingly insignificant position. Yet he was an important element in the Nazi apparatus.

Georg Frauscher and his wife Albertine lived on the ground floor of the old Landhaus. Albertine also worked in the Landhaus, as a cleaner.

Born in Upper Austria in 1891, he eked out a living as a stablehand and labourer before finding employment with the Tyrolean regional authority as a timber porter in 1924. Three years later he was appointed caretaker.

Politically, Frauscher moved with the times. He joined the Fatherland Front in 1933 and became a member of the NSDAP on 1 May 1938. The construction of the new Landhaus greatly increased his workload. In the winter months he slaved away for up to 18 hours a day. For years he never had a holiday and sacrificed himself for his job. The strenuous work paid off. In December 1941, Gauleiter Franz Hofer promoted him and increased his wages.

In the Landhaus he ensured that all the Gauleiter’s orders were followed. In spring, for example, the building was not permitted to be heated. Frauscher had to report any breaches of the rules. And he reported them – and denounced the perpetrators: In April 1942, such a report landed on Hofer’s desk. The Gauleiter immediately reacted with complete severity: “Dismiss him (immediately!!)”, he wrote on the report.

A year after the end of the war, Frauscher lost his job. His downfall was his role in a supervisory function during the Nazi period. His wife couldn’t believe it: her husband had shown “so much love” for the institution, and now they were “throwing him out”. She reported to a common defence strategy: her husband was “only a caretaker” and “had to obey orders”.